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[wander-lustier]

23.07.17

Well, that was a rather large interlude.  Oops.  Life got a hold of me and I couldn’t find a moment to type ANYTHING!  Now I’m on a plane (for the second time in 2 days… long story) - heading to China!  I have more than enough time to take to the keyboard so here goes nothing!  

UPDATE:  No longer on the plane as it has been 3 months now.  SUPER LONG interlude.  But anyway…

WELCOME TO GEORGIA!

(pretend we went back in time to March lol)

Early morning we drove to Atlanta to visit the Georgia Aquarium.  It was pretty cool but we were on a time crunch because of the time change - our clocks went forward an hour going into Georgia, which we hadn’t considered!  Right after walking in we headed to the sea lion exhibit where they host a sea lion show.  We figured since we were there right on time for it we may as well watch it and then rush our way through the rest.  Good choice! They had four very cute sea lions, all rescued from various upsetting scenarios.  All very clever and very funny, we enjoyed the show (after waiting around for 30 minutes for it begin!) and especially approved of how they treated the animals.  They told us during the show that the sea lions only participate if they choose to.  After the show a bunch of other things caught our eye too, including two big whale sharks and some jellies.

I was supposed to be sending a letter to immigration about my travel document, trying to plead for them to expedite it.  Obviously because we’ve been having such a grand ol’ time, I kept forgetting about it!  Also we couldn’t find a post box in New Orleans and had been too early to head to a post office that morning.  Our post box finding website turned out to be a complete phony, so we found an Atlanta post office and finally sent the letter!

WELCOME TO ALABAMA!

Next up on our hefty itinerary was the drive to Birmingham, Alabama.  Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum was in Birmingham and it was impressive!  4 floors and a basement, plus a big race track which could be seen out of the floor to ceiling windows. Unfortunately we couldn’t head on out to the bridge and watch the cars racing below.  There was an event being held in the museum and a section of the museum, plus outdoor access had been cornered off for that purpose.  We did explore all the levels and looked down on the cars and bikes in the basement.  A huge array of motorcycles and cars from various eras were scattered throughout the museum.  The very first wooden motorcycle and first lawnmower were hidden amongst all kinds of motorcycles and cars ranging from the classic kind, to the speedy kind.  In the museum store we found a sweet Harley Davidson sign on a vintage license plate style layout, which we’re planning on hanging up in the garage when we get home.

Next we drove into downtown Birmingham to see the Civil Rights Institute.  Sadly it was closed and gated so we were unable to get a close up look and had to take a photo by holding the phone between the gaps in the gate.  It was nice to have a wander around in Birmingham anyway, and of course we always take the opportunity for some extra leg stretching.

WELCOME TO LOUISIANA!

We finished our drive to New Orleans, checked into our cute Air BnB and jumped into bed.  We’re hoping one day we can go back with Jake’s parents and stay in the same Air BnB.  The location was awesome, as was the view.  The owner called the area ‘New Orleans’ best kept secret’, which it was!  We were on the opposite side of the Mississippi River from downtown New Orleans and had beautiful views.  Late at night we could hear the music from a club across the way, the bass was super heavy and seemed to be bouncing off the river and over to us!

New Orleans began with a blissful sleep in.  I feel like most mornings we’ve either woken up early to begin driving, or have just been incapable of sleeping in past 7!  We chowed down some breakfast and made our way to the World War II Museum.  The first person we saw after walking in was a World War II veteran.  It was pretty incredible to hear how he had been a part of the island hopping campaign, fighting in Okinawa and on a couple of other islands as a marine.  He had earned a ‘purple heart’, which means he’d been wounded in combat.  We took the opportunity to shake his hand and thank him, then Jake spent a few minutes swapping stories with him.  The museum was a lot bigger than we had expected with a TONNE of reading.  I read one exhibit and then we just wandered through the rest of it looking at all the paraphernalia instead, Jacob was relieved ha ha!  We watched a short film in a 4D theatre.  It showed us the history of a world at war and had my body jumping out of the seat and my jaw dropping.  I’ve always been interested in history but never in a classroom scenario.  It takes a museum or a good book to lure my intrigue.  Before leaving, we went to say goodbye to the veteran who we had spoken to earlier.  At this point there was a second veteran sitting with him.  He was a Vietnam War veteran who was a part of the Marine Corps air wing.  He flew marines to all parts of the pacific and Vietnam during the war.  After another brief story swapping session, we shook their hands, thanked them, and made our way back to the car.  I felt a strange sense of pride towards those men after meeting them and hearing all about what they’d been through.

St. Louis Cathedral was on a main street in downtown New Orleans.  It is a replica of a cathedral in France and one of the oldest in the US.  Gorgeous stained glass windows and religious artwork all over from floor to ceiling.  I had never known before our travels that Jake has a special appreciation for architecture.  He can spend a good portion of time looking at all the small details of a building, taking photos, and exclaiming all sorts of things to me.  It was a beautiful building, in such a perfect location!  When we walked out of the church we were welcomed with a sword swallower, artists selling their pieces, fortune tellers, and people posing as statues.  Loud live street music all over the place and mini stalls selling food.  One group had civilians all lined up in front of huge crowd, ready to learn a dance they were teaching.

We found a small bar that looked as though it had a perfect view all the way down Bourbon Street, so we went on up!  Little did we know we had actually wandered into a gay bar.  Totally oblivious, we ordered a bucket of Bud and sat on the upstairs patio sucking them down and drinking in the view.  After a while we noticed all of the rainbow flags hanging from the building and started to look and listen to all the other guests a little more closely.  Ha ha, oops, we don’t really belong here - and we realized why the others had been looking at us oddly!  We left the gay bar with our final beers in hand.  After wandering back to street side madness we noticed that no one else seemed to be carrying a branded bottle.  All the drinks were in plastic cups!  I had to skull mine back and throw away the bottle before we got into trouble!

Jake suggested we wander over to the waterfront and off we went on a little walk.  We took a few photos, searched for a bathroom and then decided it was time to eat!  Saints & Sinners is a restaurant on Bourbon Street - and a bloody good restaurant too!  We sat outside with a fantastic view of the live crawfish that were crawling around in a big open container by the footpath.  We watched as a variety of people walked by (and I say variety because you’ll come across some very unique people in New Orleans!) touching them with their phones, or pretending to touch them with their finger.  One man got so close I thought he’d get nipped!  I imagine that many a drunk person has walked by that container and received a nip!  We ordered alligator tail, mac & cheese balls, popcorn shrimp and some fries.  There was so much goodness sitting there before us and it all disappeared at high speed!  After deciding to head back to our Air BnB for a soak in the hot tub, we went to the movies to see ‘If I Fall’ and munched on more food because a visit to the movies in not complete without popcorn and a frozen drink!  I quizzed Jake on why there were 3 cop cars parked out the front of the building and he told me it was because a movie theatre is a high risk place for a shooting or similar.  THAT made me feel safe… jeez.  

Now, a whole month later and two days away from departing China and I am finally finishing up this post!  By the time I post this I’ll be back in the US and have an entire month of Asia travel to write about… that is after I catch up on the other two months of travel adventures.  Ay yi yiiii, I would never make it as an author.

With love from... Washington! xx

[wander-lustier]

14.03.17

WELCOME TO WEST VIRGINIA!

Well, our only stop in West Virginia was the New River Gorge Bridge which was an hour and half from our cabin.  Jake was poking fun at me the whole way there about wanting to see a bridge that was so far out of the way.  He shut up when we got there though.  It was an epic view over the gorge from the visitor center, with a little walk down to an outdoor overlook with an awesome viewpoint of both the gorge and the bridge.  The bridge was impressively big.  It was the largest single arch bridge in the US!  

We stopped in South Charleston for dinner at a Korean BBQ restaurant called Red Fire.  We were seated at a large Hibachi table (the middle section of this table acts as a flat stove top with a vent in front of the chef).  We were seated at the opposite end to an old couple and made jokes about how it was as though we were watching the future us!  After placing our orders a chef came to our table and performed a bunch of tricks with his utensils, before cooking our rice, vegetables, teriyaki chicken and shrimp.  He also gave us a white sauce that he called “yum yum” (I think?) which was super yummy as the name suggests!  Our chef also performed a couple of tricks with fire.  The first made me jump back as a huge flame burst up into the air right in front of us!  His second trick involved creating a volcano from onion rings, flames rising from the middle.  It was a very entertaining dinner!

Our KOA cabin was in a town called Huntington.  It was a super cute set up but we ran into some unfortunate circumstances.  Whoever had been staying in the cabin before us had obviously spilt alcohol somewhere as the stench was very strong.  That combined with the cigarette smoke we smelt in the room was a big let down.  We knew they had been smoking in there because they had covered the smoke detector with a plastic bag and forgotten to take it down! Blatantly ignoring the NO SMOKING sign!  Still no internet - and also way too busy to get my blog completed!!  I’ve been getting as far as I can while sitting as a passenger in the car but there’s only so much I can handle before getting car sick!  The lengths I go to just to keep you all informed!

WELCOME TO KENTUCKY!

Next up was Williamstown, Kentucky where we had tickets to see the life-size Ark Encounter.  It was pretty amazing to see the huge ark as we were approaching on the shuttle bus.  The ark was made of timber and was 510 feet long, 85 feet wide and 81 feet high!  This is supposed to show the actual size that the ark was believed to be.  The inside of the ark was a museum which talked all about the different views people have of things such as how Noah could fit all the animals on the ark, what those animals were, and the systems they had in place for feeding them all.  Neither of us are religious, but I think it was incredibly interesting either way! Before continuing our drive to Nashville, we thought it was more than necessary to have Kentucky fried chicken for lunch, from KFC of course.  Basically it tasted the same as anywhere else, and the service was actually crappy!  Nevertheless, KFC is always a good idea and our big bucket filled our sandwiches with delicious fried chicken for the next few days!

WELCOME TO TENNESSEE!

Nashville was definitely one of the favourites out of all the places we’ve been so far.  We stayed in another KOA cabin.  Thankfully we’ve been happy with all of our accommodations so far!  We’re both pretty low maintenance so I guess that’s easy to achieve.

We spent our first night in Nashville at the Grand Ole Opry.  If you haven’t heard of it before, it’s basically where country music was made famous.  We’re both big fans of country music so we were super excited to see what all the buzz was about!  Grand Ole Opry is a weekly country concert which began in 1925 as a one-hour radio “barn dance” on the WSM channel.  It’s where Johnny Cash fell in love with June, and all the most famous country music stars have played.  The original Opry House was damaged in a flood but a circle of the original stage was preserved and placed in the new Opry House.  We thought this was pretty incredible - imagine how many country music stars have stood there singing on that circle!?  I’m sure my Grandma Arnott would be excited to know that Elvis once played there too!  

We only knew one of the artists who played - Chris Jensen.  He sings a song called “Buy Me A Boat”.  It’s a very catchy song, you should look it up!  He closed for the show, so it ended on a high note, and so did he.  He told the audience at the beginning “I’ve had 4 Mountain Dews, 2 packs of Sour Patch Kids and 4 packs of Mike & Ike’s, so you could say I’m pretty excited for the show!”  FYI Sour Patch Kids and Mike & Ike’s are lollies (candy) over here.  He was super hyper and basically bouncing off the walls, he also had a super goofy laugh and played the harmonica like an absolute champ!  Another group who stood out for us was a group of 4 old men dressed in old school Nudie style cowboy suits and hats.  Nudie was a designer who made all the glitzy colourful cowboy suits back in the day.  They were a comedy country group so all of their songs made us laugh.  Especially their closing act where they had a “face playing” battle!  Making their mouths into an ‘O’ shape and then slapping their cheeks into the microphone.  They had us in tears!

The KOA had a cheap downtown shuttle which we caught at 10pm after getting home from the Opry.  We had to seriously push ourselves to stay awake, but it was our one opportunity to see Nashville nightlife since we needed to get to bed early the following night.  We were dropped off out front of the Country Hall of Fame and walked a couple blocks up to the main street lit with neon lights.  After grabbing a burger and dog (not the pet kind) at the first place we saw serving food, which were seriously goooood, we moved on to a place called Nudie’s Honky Tonk which I’m guessing was named after the cowboy suit designer.  There was a pretty sweet band playing there so we ordered a couple beers and grooved along for a few songs.  Literally every bar on this street has a live band of some sort.  Eventually we were both struggling to keep our eyes open and made the decision to call it a night.

We were able to sleep in the next morning which was BLISS!  After getting some laundry underway, for 8 BLOODY DOLLARS, we made our way to Boot Barn.  It was a MUST for me to buy a pair of authentic cowboy boots in Nashville.  Jake insisted that I stop looking at prices and ended up buying me a gorgeous pair of boots that I’m so in love with.  They are super comfy and look great with literally everything.  My husband sure knows the meaning of happy wife, happy life!  It was a very quick boot shopping trip because I had hunger pains like never before and needed to eat BADLY.  Thankfully my husband also knows hangry Kelly all too well and we wandered over to Burger King for a couple of Rodeo burgers (sticking to the cowboy theme).  Next we visited the Ryman Auditorium.  This is where the original Opry House was.  They’ve kept it pretty well intact and it’s now a museum, which still constantly hosts performances from famous artists on a weekly basis.  Throughout my reading I learnt that even people such as Carlie Chaplin and Houdini used to perform their acts there!!  To finish off our day in downtown Nashville, we went to a dive bar called Piranha’s which we’d seen a glimpse of on our way in.  The thing that caught our eye had been there sign announcing the famous “donut burger”.  Of course being the burger connoisseurs that we are - we had to try it!  Boy was it delicious, and all sorts of other goodness.  A meat patty, cheese, egg and bacon stacked in between two glazed donuts!  YUM!  Well worth the heart attack.  Finally to close our final night in Nashville we had a silver bullet (Coors Light beer) and roasted marshmallows in a campfire out front of our cabin.

We have just arrived in Kansas and finished a huge feed of Mexican food!  We’re driving to Colorado tomorrow after a couple of activities!  Stay posted!

With love from KANSAS! xx

P.S. I’m hoping to put together another video from the GoPro in a couple of weeks, of our US travels… but I must warn you, it will mostly consist of Jake and I rocking out to the best tunes in the car!

[wander-lustier]

13.03.17

Saying goodbye to the girls was a hard thing to do.  At the same time, I’ve been so excited to hit the road with Jake that I don’t think the reality of it all will hit me until later on.  The few days leading up to my big departure, both Julianne and Madison were constantly telling me “I’m gonna miss you so much when you’re gone”.  I was given hoards of snuggles and kisses!  When saying my final goodbye I could tell both girls fully understood what was going on.  Juju went very quiet and hid away for a few minutes, too shy to come out and actually say goodbye.  When I told her it would be her last chance, she eventually creeped out and gave me a big long cuddle and many kisses all over my face.  Madison jumped up in my arms right away.  She held my face in her hands and put her nose on my nose.  I very nearly cried.  Both those girls have been my solace (not literally - they’re a crazy noisy pair!) for the longest time.  Two whole years!  Even though they had no choice and didn’t really know it, those girls were there for me throughout some very difficult times and were always there for a snuggle and chat.  BUT as much as I’ll miss my Weir family memories… I’m beyond glad that I am now able to travel the world with my husband and create some more unforgettable memories... together.

Well, we’re on the road right now and I’m reeling in the freedom!  Thursday night we drove out to Charlottesville, which is in Virginia state.  Only an hour and a half from DC.  It took us slightly longer than expected to pack the car and say our goodbyes to friends and family.  

WELCOME TO VIRGINIA!

By the time we arrived at our Air BnB in Charlottesville there wasn’t enough time for a wander through Shenandoah National Park, which is what we’d originally planned to do.  When I say “we” I really mean “me”.  Jake lets me go off into my own little world when planning our trips and only wants to play a part if there’s special things in particular that he wants to see or do.  Which suits me perfectly!  On our way to Charlottesville, we feasted on Wendy’s Baconator burgers and fries covered in ranch, cheese and bacon.  Nom nom nom.  We have a chilly bin full of food in the back seat of our car but we’re treating ourselves to dinner out each night, either on the road or in a restaurant we find that’s recommended in our array of travel books!  The Air BnB in Charlottesville was more than perfect for what we needed.  It was nothing fancy but we knew that, from the description.  The man who owned the house lived downstairs and we had a private entrance to his attic.  It was more like a mini apartment.  There was a full kitchen, 2 bedrooms, a living area and a bathroom.  Much more than we expected from an attic!  Since we would only be there from 9:30pm until 3am we only made use of the bathroom and bedroom, with the exception of the fridge which we used to chill our 2:30am iced coffees!

3am Friday morning we began the longest straight drive of our entire trip.  12 hours!  We were driving the entire Blue Ridge Parkway which is one of the two long scenic drives we’ll be taking.  I started with 6 hours of driving, Jake is not a morning person - especially at that hour!  He slept pretty much all of those 6 hours while I belted out the lyrics to Walking On Sunshine, filled with a cocktail of energy and excitement.  One time I woke him up by slamming on the brakes to protect a skunk who was about to be roadkill.  He laughs at me because I slow down for a lot of small animals.   Don’t worry, there was literally no one else on the road, us and the animals had the whole parkway to ourselves.  It was a very exciting drive and I saw a wide variety of wildlife!  Birds, skunks, raccoons, deer and even a fox!  It was super cool because he ran into a big open field and I was able to watch him for a good few seconds as I drove by.  There was a crazy amount of deer and it was lucky we didn’t have any accidents while driving the parkway during the dark hours of the morning!  Jake took over a few hours after our breakfast break and I stayed awake to entertain him with reading, singing and banter.  I made yummy chicken and beef sandwiches at a rest stop around lunch time, which we quickly ate and then continued on.  

WELCOME TO NORTH CAROLINA!

Unfortunately we weren’t able to complete the entire parkway as the very last section had been closed down.  I’m guessing they’re doing some road work on it.  We detoured and made our way to the Biltmore Estate, which is where Ben and Becca had paid for us to stay as a part of my Christmas present!  It was such a beautiful place which so much land all around!  The Biltmore house was owned by the Vanderbilt family many years ago but we’re not sure whether they still own it or not.

After checking into the Village Hotel at Biltmore, I pre-made our egg salad sandwiches for the following day, then we showered and got ready to head to the Biltmore winery for a complimentary tasting!  We stood at the bar and tasted 7 different wines in a variety of whites, rosés and reds, then purchased our 3 favourites - 1 white and 2 reds.  Afterwards we ate at the hotel’s restaurant which was pricey but delicious!  Jacob had a dish called Frogmore which was basically a stew with lobster, clams, shrimp, sausage and a few vegetables.  I had a burger (of course) that was cooked to PERFECTION.  I asked for medium rare.  When I bit into the burger the juices basically burst out all over my plate.  It was such goodness and Jake was jealous!  We then decided we wanted to buy another bottle of wine to take back to the room and open that night.  I was exhausted and headed back up while Jake went to make the purchase.  By the time he got back and we started to drink a glass each I was finding it difficult to keep my eyes open!  I got halfway through the glass and decided to tap out around 7:30pm - it had been a long 17 hour day for me!

Saturday morning we made an early start before 7:30am, I’d had an amazing sleep in the comfy king size bed and even slept in longer than Jake who had woken up a good hour before me!  That NEVER happens!  It took us a long time to pack the car back up.  We had taken most of our belongings from the back seat upstairs with us on one of the hotel trolleys.  After panicking about possibly having lost my wallet (!!!!) and ordering a couple of coffees to go, we checked out (thankfully with said wallet being found down the side of the drivers seat!) and drove 2 miles over to the Biltmore house and gardens.  Yes, they had so much land that it took us 2 miles of driving across it to reach another of their buildings!  Tickets to walk through the Biltmore house were just shy of US$50 which we thought was ridiculous!  Although we did get some beautiful pictures at the top of the stairs which led down to the house.  It was an amazing building up close, with a lot of detail!  The gardens were free to explore so we wandered off to have a look.  Obviously we haven’t quite made it to spring yet so there wasn’t much in bloom… but it was still a relaxing walk and we did find a greenhouse at the end.  The greenhouse had many things in bloom and a lot of big huge plants, all in pots.  It inspired me and by the end of our gardens adventure I had made the decision that I would develop green fingers once we settled down in Washington state.  We took a toilet break before heading to the car for breakfast and couldn’t resist taking a peek inside one of the many stores they had, which were located in the ‘stable’ where the Vanderbilt’s used to keep their horses.  Inside the store we found various little tables with taste testers of drinks and dips to try.  We tried a few different salad dressings, drink mixers and cheese balls.  Before leaving we bought a delicious salad dressing which I think, from memory, was a mix of poppyseed and strawberry!

After a quick breakfast in the car from our chilly bin, Jake began our 5 hour drive to Myrtle Beach in South Carolina - which is when I wrote half this post!  I kept forgetting that a lot of places we stay won’t give me access to the internet from my laptop.  I’ll be writing bits and pieces as I go and post them in chapters so that you’re not overloaded with pages of blabber!

WELCOME TO SOUTH CAROLINA!

After checking into our little cabin, we were supposed to begin our fun in Myrtle Beach with a musical at the Palace Theatre.  I hadn’t bought tickets in advance because I couldn’t figure out how to do that online.  It turned out that the reason I couldn’t figure it out was because Palace Theatre had been hit pretty badly by Hurricane Matthew and wouldn’t be open again until February NEXT year!  We were bummed out about it because the building looked awesome from the outside.  We decided to park the car in the Broadway at the Beach car park.  This is a beachy style area with a boardwalk lined with stores and attractions that surround a lake filled with catfish and ducks.  We went for a wander around, took a look in a retro store and saw the Big D IMAX movie theatre.  They only play one movie a day at various times and that day it would be Logan (one of the X-Men/Wolverine movies).  I’ve only seen bits and pieces of these movies so it seemed odd for me to go and see it, but we planned to do that anyway - since it was IMAX.  The movie didn’t begin until 10:15pm, so we played a couple rounds of mini golf.  There are a tonne of mini golf courses in Myrtle Beach!  If I had known this earlier I would have planned a whole day of mini golf touring for Jake and I, because we had so much fun during those two games!  Of course I lost both times… But did better my score the second time around!  We ate dinner in between the two rounds of golf at Joe’s Crab Shack, a cool place on the water that serves seafood.  We snagged two seats at the bar, ordered a couple of beers and took a look at the menu.  I’ve never been a huge fan of seafood, but I guess our tastebuds change as we get older, plus, eating seafood is FUN!  We ordered a big bowl which had 1/2 lb of crab, 1/2 lb of shrimp and 1 lb of crawfish.  I had such a great time learning how to crack them all open and collect the meat.  Our final round of golf was followed by a walk back to the car and Ben & Jerry’s ice cream on the way.  Turns out we were too tired to stay up late for the Logan movie and ended the evening in our cabin watching American Horror Story on Netflix!

Sunday morning we went to Waffle House for breakfast.  We both ordered a big hash bowl.  Essentially it’s a bowl of shredded hashbrowns with melted cheese, scrambled egg and breakfast sausage on top.  We also had a waffle each - Jake had pecan… chocolate peanut butter for me.  Of course an American breakfast is never complete without cheap bottomless coffee!  With today’s agenda I was about to face a big fear of mine - heights!  I was feeling confident!  

Wonderworks is an interactive museum in Myrtle Beach, it’s made for kids but we had a lot of fun too!  We found lots of different things like a machine that tests how hard your grip is and a bicycle swing that can spin you all the way around if you pedal hard enough - we didn’t do that!  I felt a little silly considering a bunch of young girls were doing it and after watching for a few minutes I left the line!  Although, I did wait in line for a little roller coaster simulator.  You jump inside an enclosed booth that’s attached to a mechanized arm which moves you up, down and upside down.  I screamed so much that the ride operator laughed afterwards when mentioning how she’d heard me!  We played a game of free for all laser tag too!  Jake’s strategy was for us to hide in the corner behind a wall and shoot at everyone from there.  We were versing two adults and 8 children so it wasn’t very difficult to get the top two scores!   I can’t believe I did, but I went on a ropes course at the very end of the visit.  It took all the courage I had to get all the way up there.  All the kids were breezing through it and I was the sweaty palmed, near crying woman who’s legs were wobbly and couldn’t do the super unsteady ropes because of my lack of confidence.  We did a second ropes course outdoors which was above water.  For some reason I had a lot of confidence when completing this one and completed every challenge they had!  We decided it was because of the environment.  The indoor ropes course was above the crowds of people, it was dark with neon lights all around and VERY noisy.  I couldn’t concentrate.  On the outdoors course I was above the water.  There was noise but not as much and the environment was much more peaceful.  I was very proud of myself for completing all the challenges and it gave me a huge confidence boost for the zip line that we did next.  Pre-boarding the zip we had to wait with a group of 10 others for what seemed like hooouuurss.  It did make for some entertaining conversations with the other dudes getting ready to zip.  One black guy decked out in his Chicago Bulls attire had us in fits of laughter.  He was even more nervous than me and was making sure that was clear to all of us!  He did not like heights and did not like the thought of being over the water.  Jake kept making jokes about Final Destination and the zip getting stuck in the middle mid-flight.  Surprisingly I wasn’t super nervous and was actually more excited to do this!  I had been watching many others zipping across while we were completing the nearby ropes course and I guess that had put my mind at ease and made it look super fun!  We’ll be ziplining again in Vegas and I can’t wait!  Generally when you take a zip line you go one way and return back on another zip, which is what we did.  People kept stopping just before the end of the first zip - hence all the jokes about stopping in the middle!  Our Chicago Bulls buddy was one of the many who got stuck, Jake and I were right after him so we were back over the side laughing our asses off.  Thankfully I JUST made it far enough.  The dude at the other side threw me a rope which I was able to catch.  He then pulled me in further and I had made it!  Jake didn’t get quite close enough to catch the rope so he had to have one zipped out to him!  Chicago Bulls buddy thought that was hilarious, especially when I told him how hard Jake had been laughing when it happened to him only minutes before!  The return zip was extra fun as it went a lot faster than the first!  I was going so fast that I thought he wouldn’t be able to stop me!  All-in-all, a successful first-time zip lining experience which I’m sure there will be many more of!  We saw signs all over for a $20 helicopter ride.  I had never been on a helicopter and Jake hadn’t been on a civilian helicopter (only osprey, the military ones).  We decided since it was super cheap we’d give it a go!  They drove us 50 meters out to the little red helicopter and we jumped in, put on our headsets and took off!  It was a very short ride, only about 5 minutes, but totally worth the experience.  We had awesome views of the area we had just spent our day.  The pilot asked if we liked rollercoasters and when I said I like them a little but I’m not super fond of them he sped up just a little and banked the helicopter so that we turned sideways and had an even better view of below!  Deciding to finish off our big day with some more seafood, we went to the Duffy Street Seafood Shack which was just a block away from the beach.  It was a “throw-your-peanut-shells-on-the-floor” type of place, basically meaning it was messy dive bar which is the type of place Jake and I love!  We ate peanuts from the shell while waiting for our pitcher of beer, 39c shrimps, nachos and chicken wings… delish!  Just before calling it a night we drove to the sky wheel, which was located on the beach which gave us the opportunity for some epic late night beach views.

We’re currently in Dallas catching up with our buddy Critta (Austin) and soooo much has happened since all of this!  I’ve got more stories coming so stay posted.  We are having the most incredible adventure and LOVING life.

With love from TEXAS! xx

P.S. “When the cabin’s a-rockin’, don’t come a-knockin’!” - JTB

[wander-lustier]

10.12.16

I’ve been struggling to write the next two posts.  I’ve had such an amazing time these last two months that whatever I write won’t even begin to describe it.  I guess I need to get used to that feeling though because from now on my life is going to be a more incredible adventure than before!

Thursday Dad, Mum and Joe were arriving on the night of October 20.  I had been so excited for the longest time (as you know) and had my usual daily countdown going since months before!  For some reason I had thought they were flying into Baltimore and I had kept saying this over Skype, with no one correcting me!  They were arriving at a totally different airport in the opposite direction from DC!  Thankfully an hour before it was time to head to the airport, I checked their flight details.  I would have ended up on a mission and a half if I hadn’t!  I got to the (correct) airport, parked, went inside and sat down at the arrivals entrance, waiting… and waiting… and waiting…  about 45 minutes later Mum came up behind me and gave me a hug!!  Turns out they had entered through the second entrance which I didn’t even know existed!  Giving my dad a great big hug when I saw him was such a nice feeling - a girl always needs her daddy.  Joe was 11 years old when I last saw him… now he’s a head taller and two years older than before!  My teenage brother.  What the hell!?  I used to change that baby’s nappies!  After a million hugs and a long congested drive back into DC, we sat down for dinner with the Weirs.  Ben had made some delicious, ginormous steaks and the Kiwis were impressed!  We were annoyed to find that the red wine Dad and Mum had bought at Duty Free had smashed inside the suitcase.  They’d been told they had to pack it in there at the last minute and didn’t have time to protect it all!  Lucky Dad had a perfect excuse to buy a bunch of new clothes!  We did manage to get 90% of the red wine stains out, which was surprising, since they’d been sitting in it for close to 24 hours!

Friday Today’s plan was for Dad and Joe to go shooting at a gun range in Rockville, while Mum stayed home and played with Madison.  Unfortunately after driving out there we found out it required closed in shoes - which makes sense really!  I guess Kiwis wear jandals everywhere without thinking twice.  It was a half hour drive to get there so we decided to just watch some other people and take a look around the shop.  Dad has now got the family saving for a trip to Seattle in 2018, so I’m sure Jake will have him shooting plenty anyway!  On our way home we ordered a HUGE pizza from Pete’s, which is a restaurant in my neighbourhood who make New Haven style pizzas.  During the wait we went next door to a dive shop who were having a one day Halloween sale that would begin the following day!  Joe found a pair of dive goggles that he liked and Dad managed to talk the guy into letting us have the discount today instead, haha!   On a side note - Jacob just recently completed some diving courses and is in love with it, his new favourite hobby!  Joe is completing a dive course in a couple of weeks back in New Zealand.  When we visit I’m sure the boys will be going diving at the beach, I can’t wait to watch!  I will eventually get my dive license too, but I’m very nervous! Anyway, we took the pizza home and scoffed it down very fast!  Delicious!  Later that afternoon, Dad and I walked up to Juju’s school.  It was a stormy day but luckily there was a dry patch for us.  On our way up there, I told Dad about how much Juju talks on the way home so that he was prepared for the chatter!  Sure enough on our way home she chatted away non-stop.  Literally.  Non-stop.  Dad and I even had a side conversation and when we finished, she was still on a roll!  Once home we finished packing our bags for Florida, we were flying down to Orlando that night.  Flying out of Gate Z meant that we would be far away from anywhere decent to eat dinner.  Luckily for us our flight was delayed an hour or two and we were able to make our way to an airport restaurant with the perfect amount of time to eat.  Everything had gone smoothly up until we went to jump in the shuttle at Orlando to ACE, the car rental company I’d reserved a car with.  “We can’t take anyone to the location, even if you have a reservation”.  How fucking ridiculous is that!?  We spent a good couple hours trying to call different companies (and not getting through).  Then we spoke to the woman at the Dollar airport car rental counter… her offer was more expensive by far!  She persisted though and told us her deal was the cheapest we’d find at the airport.  We were pissed, to put it lightly.  We gave up and called an Uber.  We stayed at the Flamingo Resort in Kissimmee, which is about 30 minutes from the theme parks of Orlando.  Since ACE wasn’t picking up, we finally jumped into bed around 3 or 4am on Saturday!  Dad and I made a plan to get up early, Uber to the location of my car rental reservation and ask them what was going on.

Saturday Turns out our rental car stress was totally unnecessary!  We showed up, spoke of our dilemma and had a car within 15 minutes!   After driving back to the hotel and excitedly waking up the other two with our great news, we munched on breakfast at the resort restaurant and then headed to two water parks - Aquatica and Wet n Wild.  

Here are the rides we went on at Aquatica. Walhalla Wave - For this ride Dad and Joe, then Mum and I paired up.  It was a six-story waterslide full of twists, turns and tunnels.  We went on big tubes together.  While we waited in line Mum and I were freaking out that we would fly up the side and fall out!  It was such a thrilling ride, Joe said that even Dad was yelling “JESUS!” which he thought was hilarious haha! Hoo Roo Run - This was another one where we paired up, myself & Mum first (much to our dismay!) followed by Dad & Joe.  Basically they heaved our raft over the edge and we sped down the huge wide waterslide over big bumps, super fast!  Mum went down backwards, so I was yelling to warn her whenever there was a drop LOL! Whanau Way - Notice the name - -very Kiwi!  Joe and I teamed up for this one and we did it twice, it was that fun!  There were four different slides for this one, Dad and Mum did the other two each by themselves.  This was a high speed water slide with tunnels, which I refused to do alone! Roa’s Rapids - We had a lot of fun in this one!  It’s like a lazy river, minus the lazy part haha!  You’d go down a rapid super fast and speed off down the river.  No tubes, just yourself.  Loggerhead Lane - We all jumped in tubes for this lazy river but it was pretty quick.  About quarter of the way around we decided we all needed to be a chain.  So many laughs were had when we were grabbing each others feet, arms and tubes struggling to stick together! Tassie’s Twisters - I went down this one with Dad, again too afraid to do it alone!  Joe and Mum took their own tubes.  This one is a dark tunnel slide that spits you out into a huge funnel, you spin around and around before shooting down the final slide.  It took a lot of encouragement to get me on this one, but I did it!  Screaming all the way down and around! Dolphin Plunge - Only Dad and Joe did this slide.  It was a tube you slide down on your back.  It goes underwater and you’re supposed to be able to see the two dolphins that are swimming as you speed by.  Neither of them were able to see the dolphins though so that one was a bust.

We grabbed a snack and stopped in at the Big Surf Shores so that me and Joe could go for a quick plunge before heading to Wet n Wild.  It was okay, just your regular wave pool, nothing fancy.  At Wet n Wild, Dad and Mum sat out and kept our things dry while Joe and I continued the fun!  

Disco H2O - This ride was a huge water slide tunnel in the theme of a 1970’s disco.  A bunch of coloured lights and 70’s music boomed around us.  At first we were worried because we were sticking to the slide at the top and the dude had to really work at kicking us down the slide!  We had to wiggle around to force our descent!  We eventually went super fast and there was a very unexpected drop, my stomach felt like it jumped right out of my mouth! The Flyer - We jumped in a toboggan for this ride but I think it just went straight down and was very tame. The Blast - This slide was also pretty tame.  Basically we got drenched with water because it was made to seem like we were sliding down a ruptured pipeline.   Mach 5 -  I cannot believe that Joe talked me into doing this one!  I had to go by myself down a high speed waterslide with a tonne of twists and turns on a mat… on my stomach!  I even made air on the final stretch!  Pretty proud of that one. The Black Hole - This slide was absolutely terrifying.  It was a pitch black space adventure the whole way down, as the name suggests.  I closed my eyes and screamed the entire way, because for some reason that was more comforting than eyes wide open and screaming in the darkness!  Poor Joe with his wussy big sis. Surf Lagoon -  Our final dip for the day before dinner was in the Surf Lagoon, another regular wave pool.

I remember when I visited Seattle, Tim and Christy took me to Red Robin for a burger.  It was definitely one of the best burgers I’ve ever had, so I knew Dad would love this place.  It was a total success.  All of us devoured our burgers.  Dad had his favourite classic vanilla milkshake, Joe and I had humongous root beer floats, and Mum got no less than her usual piña colada!  Every one of us left with very satisfied and full bellies.   After dinner we made our way to Walmart for some late night shopping - Joe’s one and only request!  Many purchases were made including the family fave, Dad’s M&M button up shirt!

Sunday I got up early this morning to see my friend Sarah from Germany.  She works for Lufthansa airline as an air hostess now.  She had just flown over for work, for one night!  We had a delicious breakfast at the hotel she was staying in and were able to catch up over coffee.  Again, it was only a quick visit but I loved having the opportunity again!  I have an app on my phone that keeps track of her monthly schedule, so I’ll always know when she’s in the US!  Her birthday had been a week or two earlier so I had brought a gift over with me which I gave to her at breakfast.  I miss that lady!   When I got back from breakfast we packed ourselves into the car and began our journey to Tampa for the day.  Tom must have been jealous since the Tampa Bay buccaneers are his favourite football team!  This must have been the place Dad was looking forward to the most - the Bass Pro store!  Attached to this extreme store is a restaurant called the Islamorada Fish Company, which is where we had lunch, and alligator no less!  Yes.  We ate alligator as our entree!  Or ‘gator’ as they call it.  It was delicious and actually tasted a lot like chicken, but even more delicious, believe it or not!  The gator looked like chicken nuggets.  It had a yummy coating and a couple of different dipping sauces that went with it perfectly.  I’d eat alligator nuggets over chicken nuggets any day!   After lunch we split up.  Joe and Dad into the mega hunting and fishing store, while Mum and I made our way out to the outlet mall to find some clothing bargains.  We were all very successful! Of course we couldn’t spend a day in Florida without going to a theme park, so Busch Gardens it was!  Once we made it there we didn’t have a lot of time left, there were only two rides worth trying at this park though considering we were all not cool with roller coasters!

Congo River Rapids - Super fun and we all got absolutely soaked!  We even went around twice!  We went plunging down rapids, through caves and under waterfalls. Stanley Falls Flume - This ride included a 40-foot drop at the end!  Dad and Joe went in one log, Mum and I in the other… we were FREAKING out when we were getting close to the big drop!  Although, it was so much fun!

Unfortunately Mum had a bad migraine at dinner time, I felt terrible for her!  We went to Cracker Barrel for dinner which is an old country American restaurant - the food was crazy cheap for ridiculously generous portions!  Dad was highly impressed.  They have a gift store attached that’s super cute so we spent some time there afterwards picking out a few things, before the drive back to Orlando.

Monday Today we were hitting Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure.  I think we were all the most excited for this day as we’d all heard great things about this theme park!

Shrek 4-D - Watching the mini Shrek movie was a perfect way to begin the day.  Nothing scary, just some fun and laughs as we were sprayed with water and rocked around in our chairs. Transformers the Ride 3-D - Our first rollercoaster type simulator of the day.  Both Mum and I did a lot of screaming (and laughing!).  If watching a movie was as awesome as this I’d do it way more often.  It was so real being in 3-D that I felt like I was there, trying to hide from the battle between transformers that was going on around me! Men in Black Alien Attack - It was pretty awesome walking through the ‘underground headquarters’ of Men in Black, pre-ride.  We saw the break room, control center, agents’ locker area, and the weapons armory.  Something I should mention is that we were surprised by how quickly we were zooming through the wait lines!  There weren’t a lot of people there and October isn’t a high season at the parks.  The Men in Black ride was based on your score from shooting the aliens.  We all thought it was very tame compared to what we’d just been doing!  Dad got the highest score of course.  The only thing that wasn’t so tame about this ride was when your vehicle spun around multiple times, very quickly… that got us screaming! The Simpsons Ride - This ride was definitely more intense than I expected!  It was a rollercoaster simulator ride, and as you know I HATE rollercoasters.  This one though?  SO MUCH FUN.  As with every other ride, I was screaming my head off the entire time, though in place of the tears that usually leak from my eyes on rollercoasters, today they were wide open and loving every moment! Happy Potter Hippogriff - This ride was supposed to be a kids coaster but it didn’t feel like it to me!!  It took my family a while to talk me into this one, but they did.  I think Joe and I sat at the front, but I can’t remember that detail too well, since I was busy shitting my pants (not literally).  The ride was an outdoors coaster, which is NOT my type of coaster at all.  It was crazy fast and and winded around many corners on a lean.  The drop helped me lose my stomach.  Dad tried to have us all let go of the rails for the big drop, but that was not happening! Harry Potter Gringotts - After waiting in line for about an hour due to ride delays we were finally nearing the beginning of the ride, only to be told that the ride was being closed for maintenance.  OMG we were so bummed!  There had been a lot of hype surrounding this ride and to find out we’d have to miss it out… sucked. Revenge of the Mummy - Crazily enough this was the family favourite of the day.  Which baffles me considering it was the most intense rollercoaster I’ve ever done!  The indoor rides make me feel safer for some reason… maybe because I can’t see where I’d land if I fell out?  LOL.  Super fast, fire, darkness, twists, turns, jolts.  It was terrifying, in a let’s do it again type of way.  But we needed to move on to the next park, so instead we bought the hilarious photo of our petrified selves and called it a (half) day.

We wandered up to the car park to munch on the sandwiches we’d brought with us, then made our way into Islands of Adventure (the other half of Universal).

Eighth Voyage of Sinbad - Apparently this show was supposed to be a stunt show.  I don’t remember seeing any impressive stunts though!  We were super disappointed, but it was nice to put our feet up and relax for half an hour! The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man - Wow.  We were folioing Spider-Man along in our cart with 3-D glasses on this simulated ride.  It even had a 400-foot drop!  Just simulated of course but super scary! Dudley Do-Right’s Ripsaw Falls - Our favourite flume ride of the trip!  The final 75-foot drop on this one was incredible!  We lost our stomachs and were left soaking wet and in fits of laughter!  I think we rode this one twice! Skull Island: Reign of Kong - Unfortunately it was closed for maintenance when we first walked by.  When we came back again it was open and we jumped in line.  It took a decent amount of time to get to the front.  Luckily there are always entertaining things to watch and look at during the wait.  When we finally got to the front of the line and jumped into our safari truck… they told us we had to get back out!!  Apparently they needed to send one of their people through to check on the ride before we could do it!  Ugh.  Super annoying, making our long wait even longer!  When we finally got back into our safari truck the ride began and it was SO worth the wait!  We witnessed Kong win in a battle between himself and some dinosaurs.  Then he saw us and got mad so the safari truck drove away quickly while he was chasing after us.  I should mention, he wasn’t animated - he was VERY realistic!  Big hairy robotic thing!  It was a great way to end our Universal experience!

When we exited the ride and started making our way to pick up our bag from the locker, we realized there were some police and security blocking the way there!  We had to walk around the entire park in the opposite direction which took much longer than if we’d been able to exit the other way!  Once we got to the blockade on the other side we spoke to security and explained our situation.  They said usually the bags get brought back to lost & found where we would then collect them.  Thankfully the friendly security dude walked Dad back around to our locker.  He managed to grab it right before they started moving it over to lost & found! At the end of all the madness we returned to the car and drove to Longhorn Steakhouse.  It was gooood.  I can’t believe how much food Joe can fit inside him, it’s like it sinks all the way down to his toes and fills up from there!  He consistently ate a full meal (including bread beforehand) AND dessert.  It’s a very rare occasion when I ever have room for dessert!

Tuesday For our last morning in Orlando, we went to Waffle House for breakfast.  It was very delicious and the service was awesome!  We also got to wear the cute Waffle House hats!  Seaworld was a lot more fun than I’d anticipated it would be.  As much as Dad wanted to get Joe on a true rollercoaster - money bribes and all - it didn’t happen, haha!

Journey to Atlantis - A log flume rollercoaster hybrid is the best invention ever.  First our little boat took us through the dark, watery, sunken passageways of Atlantis.  Once we reached the top of the hill we were flung through the gates down some fun little slopes of water.  Then came the big drop - HUGE drop!  Dad did his ‘let’s let go of the rails’ schmuck… until he realized how steep the drop was and quickly held on for dear life!!  When we thought the ride was over, it was anything but.  We climbed another big hill and then sped down coaster tracks, into a dark tunnel and down a very steep but short drop to the end.  We were all totally impressed with this ride and came back for another go at the end of the day. Clyde & Seamore’s Sea Lion High - I saw this show with Tom when we went to Seaworld in Texas, so I knew it was a good one.  Sea lions, an otter and a ginormous walrus (which Tom and I never saw).  Basically the sea lions were having to pass tests to get good grades in High School, so the trainers had them doing a bunch of tricks and funny things to show off.  It was a good laugh and we got splashed multiple times - especially Mum who was directly in the way of the water! Wild Arctic Ride - This ride was pretty tame but still fun.  We strapped into a helicopter simulator and flew over Antarctica.  As it soared over mountains and nearly crashed we enjoyed ourselves (ironic), but it was nothing like what we’d just experienced in Journey to Atlantis! One Ocean - I also saw this show with Tom but here’s the difference… we made the mistake of sitting front row for this whale show.  Dad, Joe and I also didn’t realize that we had sat down right in front of two big fountains that shot up out the ground and got us hundreds of times throughout the show!  The whales splashed us with their flippers and made a wave with their tales at the very end.  Luckily that was our last activity (other than our second round on Journey to Atlantis), because we were SOAKED!  Just as we thought it was over, they did a finale and the fountains sprayed us non-stop while the whales soaked us with their tales!

We ate lunch in the car and then drove to ACE to drop it off, and took the shuttle to the airport.  Before heading back after landing safely in DC, we stopped in Friendship Heights for dinner at the Cheesecake Factory.  I don’t think any of them knew the reality of how huge the portion sizes were at that restaurant, until they had it in front of them!  Mum continued her piña colada streak.  Dad, his vanilla milkshake streak.  Joe, his huge appetite, dessert streak.

Wednesday Today along with Madison, we took the metro out to Arlington Cemetery, where we also saw the Marine Corps war memorial Iwo Jima and Tomb of the Unknown - which we had perfect timing for!  A few minutes after we arrived they began the changing of guards ceremony.  Everyone was silent as the next guard stepped in to relieve the first.  When we thought it was the end of the ceremony we began to wander down to find the perfect spot for a lunch break and we definitely succeeded.  Just as we sat down and took the first bite of our sandwiches the bugal for the true end of the changing of guards ceremony began playing!  We were below where the Tomb of the Unknown was and had a perfect view of up above! On our way back to pick up Juju from school, we stopped in at Baskin’ Robbins for an ice cream.  Of course Madison enjoyed every lick with a big smile.   In the evening we VERY slowly made our way out to National Harbour in peak hour traffic, for a serious shopping excursion at the outlet mall.  First of all we stuffed our faces with Johnny Rocket burgers before the big spending began. Lets just say that at closing time we had many full bags of clothing and shoes!  With retail therapy out of the way, we headed to the Capital Wheel, a big observation ferris wheel.  Mum was nervous about going up so high, but it wasn’t as scary as she’d thought, since we were in a sealed pod and a had a beautiful view.

Thursday I think Mum and Joe were a little bored at the museums today.  I definitely get my love for museums from my Dad!  He would have happily walked around reading every little thing for days but unfortunately for us we didn’t have the time to do that.  We had about an hour at each museum.  The American Indian Museum, Air & Space Museum, and Museum of Natural History.  Which was not even nearly enough time!  Boooo.  We stopped for lunch at McDonald’s before the Natural History museum, which Madison was very happy with!  She also enjoyed her ride on the carousel with Joe, such a ham!  We had tried to sneak past it to get more time at the final museum, but of course Madison saw it the second it was in sight! That night we took the girls on a bus to the Georgetown waterfront for dinner with Ben and Becca.  Farmers Fishers & Bakers is part of a restaurant chain called Founding Farmers, where I had been before with the Weirs.  The food was delicious and so were the drinks.  It was a fun night.   After dinner we had a big walk ahead of us!  We caught an uber to the Jefferson Memorial which had everyone in awe of the size - you definitely don’t realize until you’re right there!  We walked around to all of them.  Roosevelt, Luther, Korean War, Lincoln, Vietnam War, the Reflecting Pool, WWII and the Monument.  We were hoping to make it to the White House too but after all of that walking, everyone was ready for bed!

Friday I had to take the family to Eastern Market, which is where I spent a lot of time back when Jake lived here.  This was our stomping ground!  I pointed out the commandants house where Jake and I had gone for dinner and showed them where the marine parades were held during the summer, also where his barracks were.  We had breakfast at Ted’s Bulletin.  A fun diner that plays old school TV shows and movies, makes all kinds of milkshakes and homemade pop tarts.  We all had huge breakfasts!  Mum and Joe also tried the pop tarts and thought they were delicious.  After breakfast we walked up the street to District Doughnut, where we picked out 6 doughnuts to take on our road trip to New York City.   We made a Cabela’s pit-stop halfway, although Dad was annoyed that they didn’t hold items for more than a day.  He’d called when he first arrived to ask if they could put some scopes on hold for him, only to be told no.  He called again that morning to put them on hold and was then told that there was none in stock!  Instead he ordered it online to be sent to me, I’ll take it back to NZ for him in April.  He and Joe still managed to make many purchases and surprisingly Mum and I found some cool clothes on the clearance racks! Once we hit New York, the music went off and my intense concentration began!  It was much easier to drive in New York than I had expected and we managed to make it to the Roosevelt Hotel with only one wrong turn!  Of course during check-in they charged us for a thousand extra things, making our single night in New York a lot more than $300!  Our hotel room was tiny too!  NYC is an expensive place!  I had accidentally left out tickets and itinerary in the car which had now been taken to the parking garage up the street, by the valet.  Yet another set back!  We had a few drinks up in the hotel room and down in the hotel bar before heading out to look at Grand Central Station.  Dad thought it was hilarious to stand inside the revolving door and stop it, which got the stressed out, rushed, crazy New Yorkers even more sour!  The amount of people inside of Grand Central was insane, you could hardly walk a few meters without brushing past somebody or getting in the way!  It was a beautiful building though. After this we walked over to the Hard Rock Cafe where we met Adam for dinner.  Luckily we showed up early as there was a decent wait time.  We grabbed a couple drinks from the bartender who took forever on her first night of work there.  Just as Adam arrived it was time to make our way to the table.  It was awesome to see Adam again and we had a great time at dinner!  He told us all about his internship and Dad loved chatting endlessly to him about architecture - especially since he’d had more than a few drinks! After dinner we went out separate ways, Adam back to his home in Brooklyn, and us to the Hard Rock Cafe gift shop.  We also did some late night Times Square shopping at the huge M&M store, before continuing the endless New York walk to the Empire State Building.  It was about midnight by the time we arrived here for our adventure to the 102nd floor observatory!  Incredible views!  Outside was super windy and cold so we didn’t stay out there for very long!  I think we jumped into bed around 2 or 3am, exhausted and so thankful for the comfy hotel beds!

Saturday After checking out of The Roosevelt, we started making our way toward Central Park.  We planned on finding somewhere to eat on our way there but the one place we did see was PACKED!  We would have been waiting a long time for that one.  Instead we went to a bakery and grabbed what we could find to take with us.  Bagels, breakfast sandwiches and hot drinks.  Turns out we were happy that’s what we did, as we sat down on a park bench in central park to eat.  We did a small loop around the pond and made our way back out again after about an hour.   Next we caught an Uber down to Battery Park where we had tickets out to the Statue of Liberty.  It was such an awesome feeling being right below it.  Mum was definitely not happy about the amount of stairs we had to walk up - I’m proud of how much walking around she did, blisters and all!!  We had tickets to the pedestal.  I was hoping to get right up to the crown but unfortunately those sold out by the time I booked!  Still, it was an incredible view and the structure was so well made!  Dad told me that it’s made out of copper and that copper turns that sea foam green colour after a while… I always thought it was painted that colour! After the ferry returned (and I took a little nap), we picked up the car and began our journey back to DC, with a Burger King, Pizza Hut and Snickers ice cream pit-stop on the way back.

Sunday This morning we had to get up at 4:30am to drive out to the airport.  Dad, Mum and Joe were flying out to LA for a couple nights before New Zealand, where Rebecca’s uncle Jerry was hosting them (I hear he and his wife Lynne did an incredible job!).  The goodbye was not a sad one this time, since I’ll be seeing them again in April… my man in tow!

All in all I had an AMAZING time with my family, although I wish Tom could have been with us too!  

Speaking of Tom, he’s doing so well and I’m very proud of my big bro.  He has been doing plenty of sailing, working out like a champ, is learning to play keyboard and successfully got into the Navy as an Electronic Warfare Specialist!  I have no clue what they actually do so I took this opportunity to research it… here’s what I found… They are trained to have intimate knowledge of ships, aircraft, and their associated weapons and radars.  They provide communications support in a war fighting capacity and help with warning of potential threats against the ship.  They are required to gain and maintain a TOP SECRET security clearance because their day-to-day work is highly sensitive.  

If you’re interested you can find more info here too, just copy & paste:

http://www.defencecareers.mil.nz/navy/jobs/electronic-warfare-specialist

He wants this to be his lifelong career and has been working so hard for it!  My sisterly pride is on high beam right now!

I would like everyone to think positive thoughts for my Grandma Pryor right now.  She’s going through a very scary time in hospital and having problems with her lungs.  The past couple of days have been extremely nerve wrecking for me, especially having no family and friends here.  I’m so looking forward to family time and to introducing Jacob to my wonderful, brave, inspiring Grandma!

Phew!  That took a while!  Onto the next one!

With love from DC xx

P.S. 13 days until I see my hunk of a husband.  Excuse me while I attempt to contain my excitement!

P.P.S.  TRUMP!

[wander-lustier]

09.10.16

VIVAAAA LAS VEGAS! That’s right ladies and gentlemen, I spent my 21st there and I had a fantastic time!  Cassie (my kiwi lass) flew over from Australia to party with me and I can’t tell you how glad I am that she did.  A fellow chilled out traveller who brings along all kinds of good vibes!

Let me tell you, during my flight to Vegas my foot did not stop tapping.  Literally.  The entire way.  I didn’t realize until we were about to descend!  Sorry people sitting beside me, oops!  Immediately after exiting the plane there were slots EVERYWHERE.  At least it was obvious I was in the right city!  I was so eager to get to our accommodation and see my girl after more than 2 years of not!!  Unfortunately my eagerness led me astray when I told my uber driver the wrong location.  There are a few different ‘Travelodge’ motels in Vegas… this being said when the driver dropped me off I went directly to the room number Cassie had told me.  Luckily I didn’t knock on the door!  Just messaged her saying I was there… only to receive a call from Cassie telling me she was standing outside the room looking for me.  We told each other what buildings we could see around us and then realized I was at the wrong one.  It was definitely an adventure trying to catch an uber from downtown on the side of the road.  I didn’t know it then but it’s illegal for them to pick you up out the front.  They have to drive to the backside parking of hotels and shopping malls only!  Finally my ride request was accepted and I received a call from the driver - asking me if I could see any cops!  There weren’t any.  He told me when he pulls up we need to be swift, get my luggage in and go!  That was naughty!

Cassie is one of the best types of friends.  A friend you can go without seeing for years, talk to on occasion - but not every week, and still hit it off as if you were never apart!  We were both ridiculously excited, huge cheesy Vegas grins on our faces.  When I had finally torn myself away from Cassie, taken a shower and prettied myself we were ready to hit the city of lights!  We must have looked like kids in a candy store staring out the uber windows at the insane amounts of sparkling lights!

Our first priority was food.  At this point it must have been midnight and we were HANGRY!  A double trouble burger from PBR Rock Bar & Grill sounded perfect.  It hit the spot.  It was HUGE!  Biggest burger I’ve ever seen.  The waiter was gob smacked that we managed to finish them - I’m guessing that doesn’t happen frequently?  There may have been some pangs of regret as we walked away afterwards feeling 10kgs heavier…

Next we headed out to Fremont Street which is the older part of Vegas.  They have something here called the Fremont Street Experience which I’ll tell you more about soon.  When we arrived it was pretty dead.  2am and Vegas was dying.  I guess it was a Wednesday night, but we were a little upset by that!  Anyway, the night consisted of crawling the many pubs surrounding Fremont.  Many shots, including free birthday shots!  Not 21 shots though!  Plus a wide range of cocktails.  We realized at some point in the night that we didn’t know a single drink we’d had, as we asked each bartender to surprise us!  The first place we went was called Atomic Liquors, where I’d heard the ‘F Bomb’ was a must have shot.  We had two of those to kick off the night and continued on up the street.  The Griffin was close to taking final drink orders for the night.  We sipped on our surprise drinks, slammed a free birthday shot each and rolled on out.  The D and Hogs & Heifers were probably our two favourites of the night.  The D because of the awesome throw back music choices and fun bartender who skillfully tossed the bottles all over the place, before pouring.  Hogs & Heifer’s because of the super rude bar gals who purposefully made men feel like idiots as they ordered drinks, and who made up crude lyrics to classic songs through a megaphone every few minutes.   Girl power.  We were very determined for our first night in Vegas to never end, so in saying this we jumped in another uber and went back to the strip.  Even the strip was dying off!  We wandered around for hours - great workout, got some french pastries for breakfast at Cafe Belle Madeleine inside the Paris hotel to balance it out (by this time it was around 8am), wandered around some more… and when the sun was well up in the sky we finally gave in and went back to the motel to sleep.  Or try to.  I’m guessing we got 2-3 hours before we were ready to explore again!  Seriously, Vegas is eat, drink, sleep a little, repeat… if you choose it to be!!

Now there was a lot of alcohol consumed during my stay in Vegas, as you can probably imagine… so needless to say, my memories are little jumbled and I can’t remember the order of what we did and when we did it.  I’ll just retell it all in a jumble!  Also a great excuse to just word vomit and get this post out of the way to finally be ahead of myself… nearly.

We had a delicious lunch at the Cheesecake factory and an awesome dinner at a Mexican place.  I don’t think I’ve ever eaten so much food.  We would take so long to get ready for the day and night because of our lack of sleep, that by the time we arrived at a restaurant we’d be starved.  Then we’d overeat and be the absolute opposite.  That was basically our daily food cycle.  Not good, but also SOO good.  At the Mexican restaurant we each ordered a huge (HUGE!) frozen margarita that came in a giant plastic cup that you could carry around all over the place!  Everyone had these, or another type so wherever you went people were drinking.  Even at 9am!  We decided Vegas in no place for small children - there are fun things for kids to do, but we felt that there were way too many drunkards and public drinking that it seemed inappropriate.  Although we saw a lot of people with their kids in tow.  Both Cassie and I agreed that Wahlburger had been our favorite food place.  We think it was inspired by Mark Whalberg’s family?  Their burgers, fries and crispy onions were delicious!  The tiki bar directly opposite was also great, fun and delicious Hawaii style cocktails!  We even saw them make one in a hollowed out pineapple!

Shopping was definitely a must.  It was a disaster though and we regretted it!  It was a blistering hot day and the outlet mall we went to was all outdoors.  Too many shops!  We wanted to find beach towels to take to our pool parties and finding them proved to be a difficult task!  After hours of walking around the maze of stores, sweating our faces off, making an occasional purchase, we eventually decided to buy some Nemo & Dory towels - super classy.  Then we escaped as fast as humanly possible!

We went to the mob museum too.  Explains itself really, a museum all about the mobs back in the day.  It was really interesting and intense!  Those scary men!  Wouldn’t wanna mess with them!

Going up to the top of the Eiffel Tower was exciting!  Such an incredible view!  Just as we got to the top, Jacob called me for my birthday, from Japan!  It was perfect timing and very romantic.  After the Eiffel we headed to the High Roller, which is the observation ferris wheel of Vegas.  I believe it was over 420 feet above the ground at it’s highest point.  I think I remember hearing it’s the biggest observation wheel in the world!?  We had booked tickets for an open bar pod.  Usually there’s a large group of people all in the pod with the open bar, but we were slightly late so they made special arrangements for us to have our own personal one!!  It may not have been the best idea… a couple cocktails and shots later, I was feeling pretty queasy all the way up there… OOPS!  

We had bought tickets to a couple of different Vegas shows.  The first one was at Bally’s hotel.  It was a Fifty Shades parody show and it was HILARIOUS!  Both of us were laughing so hard we cried, multiple times!  If anyone goes to Vegas, I highly recommend that show.  Guys and girls alike.  A few woman had dragged their men along and even the men were in fits of laughter!  Too good.  The second show we attended was The Mentalist at Planet Hollywood.  Anyone ever heard of Gerry McCambridge?  He was incredible.  Cassie and I felt super spooked by how accurate he was.  At the beginning of the show everyone needed to write down a little something on a piece of paper, whatever first came to mind, then they were all collected in a big box up front.  Throughout the show he would pull out pieces of paper and guess the things written on them in different way, among other tricks.  It’s hard it to explain.  You had to be there to believe and feel how freaky and real it all was!

Fremont Street Experience was excellent.  They close off the streets to traffic and have a handful of stages featuring various styles of music and entertainment.  Outdoor bars are also out front the more prominent hotel casinos and people soar above you on the zip lines!  There’s also a huge screen up above that has all kinds of crazy coloured patterns and effects happening.  As you walk along there are people dressed as different characters - very realistically!  We saw a couple guys dressed as members of KISS and also a woman dressed as Tinkerbell!  Of course, they’re busking so if you want a photo with them, it costs.  The stage we spent most of our time at was pretty fun.  A female DJ was playing some trippy music while her dancers did crazy things with random cubes made from a bunch of connected pipes, hula hoops and other weirdly shaped objects.  They’d throw them around and do a bunch of tricks with them to the beat of the music.  I swear they were high on something to think of that.

Stratosphere tower is a must see in Vegas!  We were so high up there and the views of the city, Red Rock, the desert and beyond were amazing.  Cassie and I went up during the day but I bet it’s even more awesome at night!  We watched a couple crazies jumping off the tower with a bungee cord, hell no!  Although bungee jumping is on my bucket list, eeeeek!  I think I’d prefer water down below!  There are also a handful of rides right up the top.  A fear fall, mini roller coaster and a spinning thing that swings out away from the tower and then spins round and round.  NO THANKS!  The casino was calling our name at Stratosphere and we did pretty well!  If only I’d talked to Dad before hitting the pokies… I made an extra 50 from my $20, cashed out and then played another game with that money instead of getting my cash… DUH.  Amateur move.  There was a lot of dreaming going on between the two of us, what we would do if we won the 2 million dollar jack pot and who we would tell!  Tears of laughter during that conversation.

The towels we bought during our shopping expedition were never used considering the sun was so damn hot and we dried off within minutes after getting out of the pool!  We went to a Zedd pool party at Encore beach club.  It was SO MUCH FUN!  Swimming around with a drink in hand (which cost us nearly $20 - for a beer!), splashing and jumping around to Zedd’s sick beats.  Definitely a day I’ll remember for the rest of my life.  We felt like movie stars sitting at the pool in our swimsuits, with a live DJ, shades on and alcohol!  

Now here’s a funny story…

Cassie and I had bought tickets to see Trey Songz at Drai’s beach club (can’t remember which hotel that’s in).  We were super excited as we’re both big Trey fans.  Considering it was at a beach club, we figured you wear your swimsuits there… apparently not.  We got to the check in line wearing our swimsuits, cover ups and jandals… only to realize that we were the only ones in swimwear!!!!!!!  Face palm!  We ordered another uber, went back to the hotel, changed as fast as we could, jumped back in the uber and left.  Once we returned to the venue looking much more appropriate, we got to the front of the line, went to show our ID’s and realized mine wasn’t in Cassie’s bag!  We scooted out for the second time, ordered our third uber for the hour, jumped in, went back to the hotel, couldn’t find my ID ANYWHERE!  Then realized it had been in the bag that whole time… face palm AGAIN!  We were so flustered and had been rushing around so much!  Luckily we saw the funny side of it and basically laughed the whole way back.  We finally made our way into the venue!  We joined the big crowd at the foot of the stage and tried to push our way up front as far as we could.  Eventually I got tired of that, let 2 girls push in front of us and then followed their path halfway through the crowd!  We were very close to the stage.  We both agreed that was our favorite night by far.  The dancers at the beginning of the night were awesome, Trey Songz was epic and the hour we spent dancing afterwards was just so much fun!  

Our last night in Vegas was going to be spent at the Macklemore ‘pool party’ which we now knew from experience, was not actually a pool party, just beside a pool.  We got our hair done at  this awesome place called Drybar.  It’s a hair salon, only they don’t do cuts and colours, just style your hair however you’d like.  They also have a DJ and bar!  Super fun!  Another funny story… We were both really looking forward to seeing Macklemore and it had been all we talked about that day.  Funnily enough we got so drunk and danced so hard at the event that we didn’t even realize when he came on… neither of us remember seeing or hearing him!  We weren’t at the stage, choosing to dance outside by the pool instead.  We could hear everything from inside, as it was on the speakers outside.  Who knows how we managed to miss him!

Anyway.  As you see we had an amazing time in Vegas!  I would have loved to have a kiwi 21st with all my family and friends but this was second best!  Becca also made me a 21st key for me, which was very thoughtful :-) she made it from cardboard and glued memories that friends and family have of me all over it.  I’m so glad I have that little memento!

Mum, Dad and Joe will be here in exactly 10 days.  How fast is time going!?  Florida & NYC here we come!  I’m heading to Seattle for thanksgiving to meet our brand new niece Reagan and I cannot wait for baby snuggles!  Also, I can’t believe there are only 2.5 months until I see MY world’s best husband again!  WOW it has been way too long.

With love from DC xx

P.S. As you can tell, I was putting this post off for a while because I knew how long it would be!  Ugh!  Many more great stories during that trip, I could write about it for days.  Trying to keep up with myself is tough, but I can’t wait to read these posts and reminisce in 20 years when everything is totally different!

P.P.S. Cassie made out with Chewbacca on the streets as you can see in the pic above!

P.P.P.S. Even my afterthoughts deserve chapters!

[wander-lustier]

08.08.16

The girls have a play date today and are so engrossed in play time that I have all this spare time to type something up for ya!

First of all, woohoo I have a car!  Jake and I ‘bought’ our first car together in May/June and I’m LOVING having wheels again.  A brand spanking new Honda Civic sedan, so shiny and beautiful.  I didn’t realise how much I missed it, but damn, it’s so much easier to get around without having to rely on public transport schedules.  Instead of taking 20 minutes to pick something up at the store, it takes 10!  Instead of taking 2 different trains to get downtown, I don’t take any at all!  I’m very thankful to have a man that will do anything to make me happy… he’s a natural at this perfect husband thing, even from all the way in Japan.  Gosh, I miss him.  But guess what!?  4.5 more months until Christmas in Hawaii and 6.5 more months until Jake leaves the military and we never have to be apart like that ever again!!  I’m so proud of all the hard work he’s put in… he deserves a break, which is why we have 2 full months of travel planned when he’s finished.  SUPER EXCITED!

In celebration of my new car, I drove Claudia, DeeDee and myself out to a campground in Holly Lake, Delaware, where we stayed in a cute little cabin.  DeeDee was heading back to South Africa at the end of the month so we felt it was only appropriate for one last adventure!  Two other au pairs who we’d never met came along with us but they did their own thing and we hardly saw them.  The campground we stayed at was 20 minutes from Dewey Beach, where there are a lot of cool nightlife spots.  The drive from DC was about 4 hours.  Once we arrived we stocked up on fire wood and ice then set up camp!  S’mores, alcohol, a toasty warm fire and of course, music.  I was impressed that I managed to start a fire, I was a little doubtful at first!  Everyone at the campground was very friendly and we had a few people stop by both that night and during the day!  By the end of the night I drank a little too much and after going to the bathroom I accidentally walked into the wrong cabin!  The lady inside woke up and quickly informed me I was in the wrong place… Don’t worry, I eventually found my way back.  OOPS!

Day one of our escape was bliss (apart from the hangover).  We woke in the late morning and got ready to head to the pool.  It was a decent walk over and on our way we found a sketchy looking lookout point.  We decided to give it a go and while we walked up the whole thing was wobbling!  We went right up there, took some photos and hurried back down, luckily it didn’t fall down!  Everyone at the pool was telling us how freezing it was when we first arrived so naturally, we were scared about getting in!  Claudia and I eventually decided we would just jump right in without checking, and we did!  Only to find out that everyone had been exaggerating to entertain themselves with our 10 minutes of discussion and hesitance!  The water was beautiful and refreshing, it was a perfect day out.  

That night, Saturday, the three of us caught an Uber out to Dewey Beach front.  Our Uber driver was super friendly and gave us many ideas of where we could go.  We ended up at a cute little outdoor Mexican restaurant.  It was all open and our table was in the sand!  The sea was literally metres away from us and the sunset was incredibly stunning!  We finished our meals and took our drinks over to some sun loungers that they had set out on the beach.  We lay down and looked out over the sea and up at the night sky, very relaxing.  Next we walked a little way down the street to find a club (can’t remember the name).  I don’t know whether it was the Dewey beach people, the club, the DJ, or that particular night, but everything was CRAZY!  We saw old men in wigs and underwear, I think they must have been dressing up as a particular person but I have no idea who.  The DJ’s sounds stopped working at one point and after a bunch of people “booed” him, he was yelling and cursing through the mic, threatening to fight them!  Once the music came back on it was a pretty good night but we were all completely baffled at everything that we’d witnessed and decided to go home quite early and leave it at that!

At the end of the day on Sunday we would be driving home so to finish off the trip we packed everything up and headed to Dewey beach for a day of sun and surf.  It was super windy on that one particular side of the beach we had chosen.  We hired a sun umbrella which ended up being a waste of money since the wind kept pulling it up out of the ground and nearly killing everyone around us!  In the end we pulled it down because we were starting to risk black eyes and KO’s.  Okay, THIS water WAS freezing!  SO freezing!  But, refreshing too.  In a split second of bravery, I ran straight in there and then proceeded to yell at the girls telling them to harden up and take the plunge!  Claudia did but there was no way DeeDee was getting in!  Since it was such a gusty day we left the beach after a couple of hours in search of some delicious food before our drive home, which we found in the form of Hawaii!  I had some tasty Hawaiian flavoured shrimp tacos and recommended the kalua pork to everyone in memory of my vacation there… I can’t wait to go back!  I’ll be leaving wintery (possibly snowy) DC, for a beautiful warm Kiwi-esque Christmas in Hawaii!

After chatting to Kyle for months about visiting him for 4th of July at his dad Stephen’s house in Michigan, it was finally time to go!  I’d heard so many stories from Sarah about how much fun she’d had there last year that I was super excited to go see for myself!  Michigan really did live up to the standard I had envisioned, and beyond!  Stephen and Sandie’s house was incredible and right on the lake!  Summer in Michigan rocks!  Camila and her friend David came along with me for the long 9 hour drive (which is much longer than usual given it was a Friday night and a long weekend).  We had to make several pit stops so that Camila could pee, we could eat, and fill up the car, so after leaving at 5:30pm, we FINALLY arrived at 3am.  Kyle and his buddies were still up with a big fire and plenty of beer.  Just what I needed!  It was so great to see him and all of his friends were super welcoming and a tonne of fun!  Camila and David hit the hay not long after we arrived, but Kyle and I had catching up to do!  Kyle and Dayton managed to stay up the entire morning with me until eventually Dayton crashed, which was when Kyle and I decided it’d be a great idea to go get breakfast!  By the time we got back it was around 10am on Saturday and we finally went to sleep.  

That afternoon we woke up from our day sleep and got ready for an afternoon on the lake drinking beer, listening to Sean’s sweet tunes and swimming!  You may have seen the video I made of Michigan on YouTube… well, most of the video consists of exactly that!  I met so many awesome people, too many to count!  I really wish Jacob had been with me because it was such a blast, and you always have even more fun when your best friend is around!  Camila and David were having a great time… until Camila became a mixture of alcohol sick and sea sick, not so fun!  She stuck it out though and then headed to bed super early once we were back.  Early night for those two once again and unfortunately they missed out on all the July 4th craziness!  The night consisted of jumping around from group to group, meeting people and chatting about who knows what.  It ended with a dance party in the living room, colourful lights and all, where we eventually all lay down in a row and fell asleep.  I guess we were all too drunk to make it to a bed, haha!  

It seemed majority of us were feeling very sorry for ourselves the next day, with hangovers to match our big night.  It was a sloooooooow day.  Of course we still managed to have a lot of fun, playing Beersbie on the lake.  I’m not going to try to explain the rules, so just watch the video, we’re playing a beginners version of it right at the end!  That night was the second July 4th party at Dayton’s parents house, nearby.  Camila, David and I decided to go for a quick dip in the lake and out to a pontoon just off the shore.  I would be driving Kyle to the airport early in the morning so a quiet night by the fire was my plan, which I thoroughly enjoyed!  We’d stopped to pick up a big box of fireworks and Kyle lit them up at the end of the pier.  We headed home around 10pm so that we could could get some sleep before driving out to the airport at 3am.  Thankfully I was able to come back and sleep!

Monday morning when I eventually woke up it was shower, clean, and go!  Stephen and Sandie both told me I was welcome back any time.  Obviously I took them up on that offer and am heading back on Friday for another long weekend!  Sadly Kyle won’t be there this time but I’m looking forward to seeing Stephen, Sandie and Dayton again!  I’m sure some others will stop by too!

I’m loving all of this travel, it makes the time speed by.  Unfortunately the same can’t be said for Jake who is very bored and can’t wait to get back (I can’t wait for that too)!

At the end of August, early September I’ll be off to Vegas to meet up with Cassie for my birthday!  Haven’t seen that lady in years so I’m super excited for some quality Kiwi, birthday fun!  In October Mum, Dad and Joe are coming to visit.  I can’t believe I won’t have seen my daddy and baby bro for 18 months!!  We’ll be heading to Orlando to hit up the theme parks and then a weekend in New York City.  I’m looking forward to being their tour guide and have a packed itinerary all ready to go!  For Thanksgiving I’ll be flying to Seattle to stay with Pat and Sam AND by then, my brand new baby niece!  Next up will be Christmas with Jake which is the most exciting vacation of all… DUH!  

With love from DC xx

P.S. I can’t believe how many posts I’ve made now… time flies and so much has changed since I started this!

[wander-lustier]

10.07.16

Back from Hawaii and all wifed up.  I’m still getting used to that title and the shiny rock on my left ring finger still catches my eye every two minutes.  Even though the military did their very best to mess with our plans, I still had the most amazing vacation ever, with the most incredible people who are now all my family.  Not only did I get to spend 11 days with the love of my life but I got to see my beautiful mum after 13 months!  I’ve been back in DC  for over 2 months now and it sucks to be away from everyone again, especially him.  5 months and 14 days to go… luckily time is speeding by!

I’m going to try a different technique for this vacation post.  If I was to just write up one big long post it would end up being a novel (it probably still will).  Instead, I’ll split it up into days and just tell the most significant stuff!

Day 1:

A ride to the airport at 3:30am on two hours of sleep and a bottle of red wine, followed by a flight that felt longer than my flight into America!  I was so eager to see Jacob, a pile of nerves and excitement.  I had butterflies as if we were meeting for the first time again!!  Touch down in Honolulu and after what felt like another 2 hours, I was practically going for a light jog, making my way to baggage claim, passing everyone else in my excitement.  Spotted the soon to be hubby and jumped into his arms - literally JUMPED!  A ridiculous grin permanently spread across my face, complete with giggles.  I actually felt whole again - super cliché!  A hike up to a beautiful waterfall, the sweetest belated proposal, a GORGEOUS ring that I love more and more by the day, a feast of McDonald’s (like old times) and introductions to all the new brothers.  Of course, Jelly is never complete without a wild night out!  Then again, KELLY is never complete without some bad luck.  A scratched up back from attempting to pee in the great outdoors, and a hefty limp caused by some bitch’s fat heel stomping on mine!

Day 2:

Barrett gets whipped with 24 hour duty while fiancé hangs in the barracks all day collecting attention from said marine, when possible.  The war for my homemade cookies begins and Jacob becomes defensive as ever.  To stick with tradition I mixed up a double batch of guacamole - this is when the cookies were shared in order for the guac to remain sacred!  When 10pm rolled along, I had to roll on back to the cabanas.  Jacob tucked me in and headed back to work… yes, on our ‘honeymoon’ I had to spend the night completely alone!

Day 3:

Marine continues to work while I laze around the cabana and on the beach (getting burnt).  That night Jake, Gonzo and I went shopping for Jake’s wedding outfit, followed by dinner at Ruby Tuesday’s.

Day 4:

Mother dearest arrives, we wait an hour while she’s held up at customs - but of course, she mentions the word marine and everyone turns sugar sweet!  I was overjoyed to see my mumma again and couldn’t quite believe she was there! Today I was feeling like shit, because what Kelly vacation is complete without bad BAD luck.  I think I’ve learnt to embrace it now.  Jake went back to work while Mum and I lay in the cabana catching up (and napping).  Later on it was time for the wedding wine tasting - with a quick stop by The Shack for burgers, fush & chups, shrimp & wings with our babe Gonzo.  The four of us headed over to Formaggio, the reception dinner location, to decide on wines for the night.  We were able to make our decisions immediately after trying each one, Mum and I agreeing on everything and Jacob agreeing with us!  We definitely over estimated how much wine we would need on the night!  To finish off, we popped over to Starbucks for a hot drink and some late night banter.

Day 5:

A big shopping day for Mum and I while Jake continued to work hard.  Many dollars were spent and much fun was had.  It made the vacation that much more perfect having my bestie there with me!  Jacob was supposed to be picking us up at the end of the day since we had no other way of getting back.  Of course the bad luck streak was not over yet and Jake was detained for the most innocent mistake!  I won’t go into detail but from our (non-biased) point of view he really didn’t do anything criminal and definitely did NOT deserve to be cuffed and held back for half the day.  After half a day of no reply from Jake I was very worried to receive a brief message telling me he was detained and wouldn’t be able to pick us up.  With a phone on 1% of battery and a fiancé in cuffs I was very stressed out!  I can always rely on our buddies to help out though and Pickles was thankfully there to save the day before my phone died.  For a couple hours there Mum and I thought we were stranded in Honolulu!  A while after we got back, Jake and Gonzo came to pick us up.  We no longer had a rental car anymore because of this whole situation and were having to borrow Onheiser’s beautiful sparkling sports car (sarcasm).  We would only be able to use it for 3 days so we had to make the most of it!  A jumbo pizza, some snacks and drinks from the grocery store and back to the cabanas for the night.  Jacob left to pick up the Barrett clan and we briefly caught up with them and introduced them to Mum, before calling it a night after a long, emotionally exhausting day!  Day 5 of my trip and I was still feeling super unwell, especially after being on my feet shopping all day.

Day 6:

Thankfully I woke up today feeling 10x better and the three of us went to a breakfast spot called Cinnamon’s.  Delicious food!  Jake was constantly having to sign in and out all his family members who were staying on base because we hadn’t known to fill out paperwork before they arrived.  It was frustrating but we made it work somehow.  Today was a day full of many little errands.  We picked up the ingredients for the wedding cake, which I would begin making late that night and also went to get our marriage license - making it all seem a lot more of a reality!  Once our errands were all out of the way, myself, Mum and Jake got a little more dressed up and went to a luau!  Chief was the man of the show, he was a comedian which made it all that much more entertaining.  It was a night full of laughs, amazing food (especially the kalua pork), and a romantic dance by firelight which made Mum cry!

Day 7:


Happy birthday to my beautiful man!  It was such a great feeling getting to wake up next to him on his special day.  We were all class with out re-heated McDonald’s breakfast!  Birthday boy’s one wish was to see the Jungle Book at the movie theatre, so that’s what we did.  Such a big kid.  Mum and I had to laugh at how engrossed he was in the movie - specifically during one of the tiger scenes when his jaw was dropped and eyes wide open!  Too cute.  It was a great movie though!  We spent the middle of the day swimming at Lanikai beach.  Stunning clear blue waters.  Refreshing!  The boys headed to Dave & Busters that evening  which is an arcade/bar/restaurant which I may have mentioned before in a previous post?  While the boys did this, Mum, Mom and I went to get mani pedis for the wedding.  Our nail artists were very entertaining and we had a fabulous time, the only thing missing was a glass of champagne each!  Afterwards we met the guys at Dave & Busters then headed next door for dinner and drinks at a diner to finish up the night.


Day 8:

THE BIG DAY!  It couldn’t have gone more perfectly.  I spent the morning frosting the giant cookie wedding cake and added the topper of the bride holding the groom!  Lanikai beach received another visit from the three of us and Jake’s parents.  Who can say they spent the day of their wedding swimming in a tropical ocean with their family!?  To be honest I don’t have a lot to say about the wedding ceremony because it was more than I could have imagined.  It was so simple, yet beyond my expectations.  I’m going to leave it at that because the pictures really contain all the words!  Our reception at Formaggio was loads of fun, the food and drink were both delicious and the company was even better.  I had compiled a ‘Lovebook’ online for Jacob as my wedding gift to him which had hundreds of reasons why I love him, complete with little stick figure cartoons.  He has it with him on deployment right now which makes me so glad I made it!  After the reception all the boys and I took Mum and Tim out clubbing.  Rumfire was our first spot which was very classy and laid-back compared to our second spot, Moose’s.  Mum and Tim wouldn’t stop talking about how the ceiling was too low and their were too many people to be able to escape if there was a fire!  We stayed close to the fire exit to ease their minds... haha!  Clubbing didn’t last as long as we’d expected but Jake and I were more than happy to have the remainder of our wedding night to ourselves…

Day 9:

Without a car, Mum, Jacob and I attempted to walk from the cabanas to the cottage… it was further than we thought and starting to rain!  Thankfully a couple of friendly dudes picked the three of us up and dropped us off over there so that we could fry up some french toast - complete with fried bananas and bacon of course!  Today we ticked something off my bucket list… parasailing!  We stopped in at Gump Shrimp & co. beforehand, which is a seafood place in the theme of the Forest Gump movie.  The food was delicious, especially the crumbed shrimp!  We were able to have our own private parasailing experience as we were the last group of the day so no one else was on the boat!  It was amazing, extremely thrilling and my nerves were ridiculous but I did it and had so much fun!  It’s amazing how many crazy things I can do when I have Jacob by my side… he makes me feel like I can do anything!  If you haven’t watched the video yet, check it out here on youtube - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XrBCarbs2gQ   I bought a GoPro before the trip so I was able to make a couple sweet videos from all our footage.  Unfortunately we forgot to have someone film with it at the wedding, but Pat had his GoPro also and managed to make a great compilation of it all. Here’s another video that sums up how relaxing and fun Hawaii can be - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fnhkik0pkis After parasailing, we stopped by Jake’s grandparents hotel to have dinner at the buffet.  They had all you can eat crab and it was delicious!  Since Jake’s grandma had been unwell the past few days and wasn’t able to make it to the wedding day, it was nice to be able to spend some time with her and fill her in on our special day.

Day 10:

For Mum, Pat & Sam’s final morning in Hawaii Christy made us all a big family breakfast at the cottage.  Directly after this we drove Mum to the airport and I helped her check in.  Of course tears were shed, but not too many!  Thankfully I get to see Mum again in October.  We spent the rest of our day over in Waikiki with Pat & Sam.  Jake and I feasted on some McDonald’s (yes, again) and went for a swim on Waikiki beach while Pat & Sam did some shopping.  The four of us met up to continue shopping and then stopped by the grandparents hotel to say goodbye, before dropping Pat & Sam off to meet a friend for dinner.  A year ago today, we met for the first time, so to celebrate we decided to have a late night picnic on the beach.  Music, champagne, crackers, cheese and pepperoni, hummus, fruit salad, chicken sandwiches and donuts.  It was yummy and very romantic!  The perfect end to a perfect vacation.

Day 11:

For my final morning in Hawaii I sat in Tim & Christy’s cottage by myself while Jake worked again.  It sucked that my last few hours consisted of that!  Everything was packed into the car and off we went - making a quick pit stop to say goodbye to Gonzo and the parents-in-law.  Too much sadness.  I didn’t cry until my final hug with Jacob.  It was just the worst.  The airport wasn’t busy so he stood there and watched me go all the way through security, then blew me a kiss.  Once I was out of sight, I was a MESS.  Though my incredible hubby called seconds after to calm me down and reassure me that everything would be okay.  The flight home was long, lonely and boring.

I can’t complain about arriving home to a “Welcome home Mrs. Barrett” banner and two excited little princesses full of affection.  I was so damn tired and so damn sad.  No matter how much effort people put in to make me feel better, I was super lonely and upset.  Even though the girls kept me busy during the week, whenever there was a moment of silence I’d get a giant lump in my throat and my eyes would well up.  I wanted to be back over in Hawaii so bad.  I still do of course, but I think it was all about finding an ‘obsession’.  I’ve been hitting the gym 7 days a week and am feeling so much more positive about every single thing in life, that there’s no time to get upset and cry.  I know that the more energy I put into the gym, the faster time will pass!  I’ll never keep up with the marines, but I can try!

A couple days after I arrived back I was lucky enough to have a short but sweet visit from my cousins Daniel & Sarah!  It was awesome seeing them again and it makes me so happy when I get visits from my favourite Kiwis!  We did lots of walking, talking, sight seeing, drinking, eating, shopping and had many laughs.  I’m looking forward to seeing them again next year, back in New Zealand!

Until next time… (which will be VERY soon!  I have two other trips to write about already!)

With love from DC xx

[wander-lustier]

Impossibly Long ... Bucket List

27.04.16

Here it is, my life long bucket list!  I created this close to 6 years ago, when I was only 15!  I’ve changed a few things over the years but it’s pretty much the same.  The older I get, the more things I manage to tick off in a year.   People who know me very well, will know that I have self-diagnosed obsessive compulsive list writing disorder.  This is the list I am most proud of to date LOL!

33 down, 87 to go!  I think that’s a damn good effort for only 6 years... still a lifetime left!

1. Climb a mountain 2. Test drive a Ferrari 3. Go inside the Great Pyramid of Giza 4. Hold a tarantula 5. Take a candlelit bath with someone 6. Try every restaurant in your area 7. Bungee jump 8. Visit Paris 9. Watch a lightening storm @ sea 10. Stay up all night to watch the sunrise 11. Watch the Northern Lights from a glass igloo in Finland 12. Go to a huge sports game 13. Walk to the top of the stairs in the leaning tower of Pisa 14. Grow a vegetable garden 15. Touch an iceberg 16. Sleep under the stars 17. Learn to surf 18. Take a trip in a hot air balloon 19. Watch a meteor shower 20. Get drunk on champagne 21. Give more than you can afford to charity 22. Look up at the night sky through a telescope 23. Visit Fiji 24. Have a food fight 25. Bet on a winning horse 26. Have a snowball fight 27. Shower in a waterfall 28. Hold a lamb 29. See a total eclipse 30. Ride a roller coaster 31. Hit a home run 32. Dance in a club from 12am-3am non-stop 33. Adopt an accent for an entire day 34. Visit all 50 states of America 35. Pick up a hitch hiker 36. Party in Ibiza 37. Watch whales 38. Steal a sign 39. Backpack in Europe for 7 days 40. Take a road trip around the whole of NZ 41. Go rock climbing 42. Take a midnight walk on the beach 43. Go sky diving 44. Visit Ireland 45. Visit Japan 46. Milk a cow 47. Play in the snow 48. Sing karaoke in a club 49. Lounge around in bed ALL DAY 50. Play a game of touch 51. Go scuba diving 52. Kiss in the rain 53. Oktoberfest in Munich 54. Take the Trans-Siberian Express from China to Russia 55. Go to a drive-in theatre 56. Visit the Great Wall of China 57. Play in the rain 58. Go to a ball 59. Ride a camel in the desert 60. Make cookies from scratch 61. Ride a gondola in Venice 62. Get a tattoo 63. Raft the Snake River in Twin Falls, Idaho 64. Send a message in a bottle 65. Go to Las Vegas 66. Knowingly try shark meat 67. Go to Thailand 68. Make love in a rainforest 69. Go on a cruise ship 70. Learn another language 71. Go on a bicycle tour in Cambodia 72. Move to another city 73. Walk the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco 74. Be the member of an audience in a TV show 75. Touch a stingray 76. Go on an African safari 77. Go on a horse trek 78. Hike to the bottom of the Grand Canyon 79. Visit all 7 continents 80. Go on a canoe trip that lasts more than 2 days 81. Try kangaroo meat 82. Try parasailing 83. Touch a cockroach 84. Eat fried green tomatoes 85. Kill and fillet a fish 86. Go to a concert 87. Volunteer abroad 88. Go jet skiing 89. Go camping in the bush 90. Watch the launch of a rocket in Florida 91. Visit the British Museum 92. Bake an extreme chocolate cake perfectly 93. Get full drivers’ license 94. Go to Sri Lanka 95. Go skinny dipping in Nice, France 96. Buy a lottery ticket 97. Visit the Abbey Road crossroads in London 98. Visit Hawaii 99. Go to the Taj Mahal in India 100. Walk on a glacier in Alaska 101. Touch a live snake 102. Visit Mount Rushmore in Rapid City, South Dakota 103. See the Mona Lisa in Paris 104. Sleep on an overnight train 105. Have a pillow fight 106. Hike to the base camp on Mount Everest in Nepal 107. Build a snow fort 108. See Niagara Falls 109. Go to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris 110. Visit Russia 111. Go to Times Square in New York 112. Watch the changing of guards in London 113. Go to Vatican City in Rome 114. Go to a cafe in Amsterdam 115. Tour inside the White House in Washington, DC 116. Dirty Dance in a club 117. Swim in the Indian Ocean 118. Tour Ancient Rome 119. Swim with dolphins 120. Spend Christmas on the beach drinking piña coladas Stay tuned... Hawaii excitement coming soon!

With love from DC xx

[wander-lustier]

12.03.16

Christmas and new year was a lot more difficult than I let on.  It’s the first time I was away from family members during that time, and it has to be the last!  I was spoilt rotten, given so many gifts that I never expected and was made to feel like a part of the family.  But it was different.  SO different to a Kiwi christmas.  We spent christmas morning in DC and then flew up to Buffalo, to stay with Ben’s dad, which is where we spent the rest of christmas and saw the new year in.  I longed to rummage through my christmas stocking with my brothers, or give my dad a big christmas morning hug, or eat my mum’s delicious cooked brekky.  I wish that on new years eve I’d been able to share a new year kiss with Jake, and drink and dance, near the beach, with my friends. There were no BBQs, a bunch of snow and cold, no champagne with strawberries, and boxing day didn’t even exist!  Christmas has always been and always will be my most favourite time of the year.  I love spending that special time with all the family.  There are so many traditions that I never picked up on until I was here and didn’t have any of them.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying I didn’t enjoy myself, but after 19 years of the same christmas festivities, the change was just odd.  Something that was even more odd, was going to bed at 10pm on new year’s eve!  I can’t remember the last time I did that!  Apart from that one time where there was a lot of early drinking and I was out before the countdown (sometimes, I’m my mother’s daughter)… I’m pretty sure that even when I was a wee girl, the rents would let me stay up if I could last!

We did some fun things while in Buffalo, like ice skating (twice), went to a bounce house with the girls and I joined Becca at her friend’s baby shower.  Towards the end of January was Ben & Juju’s twin birthday!  We had a great time, went out for dinner, drank wine, ate ice cream cake and gave them gifts.  Juju is now a big 4 year old!  

I don’t really have any specific photos for this post… I’ve fallen off the photography wagon lately, oops.  I’ll throw some pictures up of the girls though, that’s always entertaining!

Most people know I love to dance, and dance, and dance, and if you put a drink or 10 in my hand, I’ll dance even more!  I’ve been trying to get out as much as I can since I love it so much, but it can be difficult when you have no one to do that with.  There’s been once or twice where I’ve been going stir crazy and have just showed up at a club alone and danced from 12am-3am non-stop!  That one was on my bucket list by the way - definitely crossed it off!  If only I could afford to join a dance company and get back into hip hop.  I guess I have a bunch of ‘friends’ who I can count on to come out with me in desperate times.  That sounds harsh, but really, that’s what my girlfriends here are… they don’t seem to be people I could go to and break down on about an awful day, or missing Jake.  Or the kind of girls I could go to when it’s that time of the month and I just want to pig out on junk food while watching Netflix.  Some days I just wish that Cassie and Caroline were two doors down to lift my spirits.  Two girls I can always count on.  Sometimes I feel super lonely.  Though in all honesty, I’d rather only spend time with people I can truly look forward to spending time with.  I don’t see the point in a bunch of friends that are around on an “I’m bored, let’s do something” basis.  I want friends that I call saying “I wanna see you, let’s do something!”.

I am doing something about this, so don’t read this and think that I’m complaining too much and not taking action!  I’ve been checking out a website Ben mentioned to me, called Meetup.  It’s a site where people can create all kinds of different groups and others can request to join… then the organiser of the group sets up events and activities that you can go along to and meet new people.  I’ve requested to join a book club and an international girls group that do all kinds of different things.  I’m also on the lookout for a decent hiking group, but I haven’t been successful there yet.  Fingers and toes crossed I find someone I can connect with!

The Weirs took me out for some fun the weekend before last, after another ‘friend’ stood me up the night before and I was feeling a little down in the dumps.  We went to an arcade and I had a tonne of fun with Madison, assisting her as she threw balls and scored points towards a bunch of treats!  I had a delicious crushed ice watermelon cocktail (which had to be replaced after Madison kicked it over!).  After this we headed to a pizza place - always delicious - and Becca very generously took me shoe shopping!  6 days ago it was my 1 year America anniversary.  I can’t believe it’s already been a full year!  Kind of scary that time flies by so quickly.  It’s good for now, I want to be back with Jake, but once 2017 rolls in it needs to take a back seat! In celebration, myself and the Weirs went to a restaurant for dinner called Founding Farmers, where they supposedly make the best fried green tomatoes in DC.  Well, fried green tomatoes was on my bucket list so I had to order them!  Literally sliced green tomato, covered in crumbs and deep fried.  They were served with two types of dips and they tasted amazing!  I was afraid they would be a let down, but I was impressed!  Becca was too!  For dinner I had ribs, because when ribs are on the menu, why would I not.

The gym has been my best bud for the past couple of weeks.  I’ve been going 7 times a week, twice on Tuesday and Thursday.  Wednesday and Friday are my days off.  I’ve been enduring bootcamp, bouncing on the Bosu ball, boxing, Zumba-ing and doing some barre discipline work outs.  I feel GREAT!

Easter is coming up, whoop whoop, chocolate time!  Really, what’s the point in the gym if you don’t have something to work for?

Jake is now back from his 6 weeks of training in Cali and I must admit, I found it easier when he was there and out of service!  I wasn’t constantly checking my phone or wondering what he was doing, because I just knew.  Now that he’s back in Hawaii and has a bunch of free time, my phone is glued to my hand and I’m consistently wondering what he’s up to.  I guess in a way that’s great, it means I’ll be good at this whole deployment bonanza coming up in June!  Fingers crossed those 8 months apart fly by!

By the way, it’s the FINAL COUNTDOWN!  Only 28 days until I get to see, hear, smell, feel, taste (TMI!!) the love of my life!  YAY!  35 days until I’m bound to him forever!  We’re having a small, simple wedding ceremony in Hawaii on Makapu’u Beach.  His parents, brother Pat, wife Sam (who are expecting a little bubba by the way!  Super happy for them!), both sets of his grandparents, and a bunch of marines will be there with us.  Did I mention that I get to see my gorgeous mumma!!!!??!?!  I’m beyond excited for that.  After 13 months of not seeing my best best BEST friend, my incredible host parents have paid for her to fly over and spend 6 days with me!  I promise there’ll be plenty of fun photos.  We’re having a BIG wedding in NZ, a long way off, once Jake is out of the corps and has the freedom to be out of the country a long time.  I feel like I’ve told all this to a million people and I never realised I hadn’t said anything about it on my blog!  People ask me all the time if it feels weird/unreal/crazy etc, etc to be getting married at 20 years old… it used to, but now, it feels normal, like it was supposed to happen all along and it’s just the norm.  I’ve been seeing so many memes on Facebook lately saying things like “All my friends are getting married and having babies, while I’m over here getting drunk and travelling the world”.  Like, who EVER said that I couldn’t get married, get drunk, travel the world AND (eventually) have babies!?  I can do all of those things, with the most amazing man in the universe right by my side...I’m EXTREMELY excited for it and I’m just as excited to give him all the gifts I’ve been putting together!  OH and I’m excited to spend 11 days on the blissful Hawaiian beach.

Be jealous!

With love from DC xx

P.S. We had a big sheet of snow not so long ago, I’ll post some pics that I think I have.  Now the snow is long gone and it’s starting to get nice and warm!  Finally time for shorts and t-shirts!

[wander-lustier]

06.02.16

HI!  I’M BAAAACK!

Merry (late) Christmas & Happy (late) New Year, my darling family and friends!! We’re going to back track to October/November for this post and yes I KNOW… I STILL haven’t caught up to myself yet.  It will happen.  Maybe that’s my first new year resolution!  Honestly, this has been the most difficult post to work my way through.  There’s so much to tell and I’ve been doing a tonne of procrastinating, alongside blatantly ignoring the fact that I need to get this done!  Not only for all my screaming fans, but for myself… I can’t wait until I’m 50 years old and reading back on all the experiences I had in my 20s.  Though I’m really not in a rush to be 50!

A lot of fun was had back in October with all the fall festivities.  America truly finds a way to celebrate EVERYTHING.  I dressed up as wonder woman for halloween and went to a club with a group of friends.  Admittedly I couldn’t feel my feet the next day, which always happens when I try to match my shoes to my outfit!  Ben, Becca, the girls and I went to a fall (autumn) fair where they had all sorts of super fun things for the girls to do.  Madison rode on a pony and Juju jumped off huge stacks of hay bales!  We went for a hay ride over to the pumpkin patch where we each picked out our own pumpkin to take home and carve.  Getting my hands in the slimy pumpkin guts while carving them was definitely a lot of fun, and a tradition I’ll be taking back to New Zealand with me one day!

Mid November I flew to Seattle to see my gorgeous boyfriend (update: now fiancé, SURPRISE!) before he flew off to Hawaii.  I mentioned in my last post that I would be visiting him during his training in SoCal, but unfortunately he will be too busy and has no time off!  I will be taking extra leave for Hawaii instead.  Can’t wait to see that man of mine.

My flight to Seattle was horrific.  I had been feeling off colour all day during work and it only got worse once I was up in the sky.  I was eyeing up the puke bag every half hour, but luckily I survived without any embarrassment.  Seeing Jacob was the best feeling!  Especially when he told me he had a box of ribs in the car for me.  Of course, I didn’t eat them since I was feeling like shit - but the fact that he knows how to make me happy (with food, duh) makes him a winner.  I didn’t begin to feel any better until the following morning when I had to dash to the bathroom, (minutes after meeting Jake’s dad for the first time) puking all over.  I guess you win some, you lose some.  

The Barretts and I got along all too well and I immediately felt like a part of the family!  We played darts, we drank, we ate a DELICIOUS early thanksgiving dinner and we had plenty of card game marathons!  On arrival, Jake’s mom had put fresh flowers and a gift for me in the room we stayed in!  Super sweet!

Jacob’s family live in Washington state, which is on the west coast of the USA.  It has stunning scenery and many parts of it reminded me of New Zealand.  Lake Stevens is the name of the town that Jake’s parents Tim & Christy, his brother Patrick, and brother’s wife Samantha live in.  Jacob completed high school and college there and I had the chance to meet one of his old friends, which was awesome!

We had a very full schedule for my first visit to Washington state, so most days we were on the road, which was a lot of fun!  Our first destination was a little German town called Leavenworth.  We had to drive through a mountain range to get there and stopped off at Stevens Pass where the mountains were beautifully covered in snow!  We went inside a ski resort and bought hot chocolates, then ventured outdoors where Jake started a snowball fight and we also built a mini snowman.  

When we arrived in Leavenworth it was basically a street lined with dozens of tiny knick knack stores and a few food and drink cubbies.  Jake spoilt everyone rotten, buying all kinds of gifts and goodies at the stores!  We had a lot to take home!  There’s this business called KOA who have camping grounds all over the US and this is where we stayed in Leavenworth.  Our cabin was super cute but only had sets of bunks… it was a little cramped!  There was a swinging love seat outside on the front porch where we cozied up that night with music, candles and champagne… very romantic!  Although here’s a tip: don’t let Jake cook dinner on an open fire, he tends to use the lighter fluid while the food is cooking!

It’s been so long now (as usual) that I don’t specifically remember the order in which we went to these places, but I’m 80% sure I’ve got this right!  The next road trip we took was with Pat and Sam to Victoria, BC in Canada!  We drove to the ferry terminal to take a ferry across.  It was very odd floating along and then driving off into another country… something you definitely can’t experience in New Zealand!  

The first tourist destination we went to was Buchart Gardens.  The sunken garden and the Japanese garden were beautiful, although all the plants everywhere were basically dead - being the beginning of winter an’ all!

Next we visited the Craigdarroch Castle.  I won’t bore you with the details, long story short it’s an old castle where a big family lived.  Of course everyone was annoyed that I insisted on reading everything there was to read!

That night we ate dinner at a place called The Old Spaghetti Factory.  Pat and Sam were super excited to eat there as it’s one of their favourites.  The food was GREAT but the service was horrible, we sat around waiting nearly an hour to pay!  

After this we began wandering down to a billiards room, that the hotel attendant had mentioned to us… we passed by a great deal of stores before making our way there and spent MORE money - but real Canadian maple syrup was totally worth it.  The drinking age in Canada is 19.  It was nice being able to flash my ID and grab a drink once again, although now I’ve cracked the US system and can buy a drink wherever I like!   Secret squirrels.  The four of us had a pool tournament, couple against couple.  It seemed Jake and I were opposites the more we drank, he got much worse and I became a pro!  I’m pretty sure the sober team ended up winning that tournament!  At the end of our tournament, Pat and Sam made their way back to the hotel.  Jake and I stayed on to verse each other one on one and I definitely don’t remember who won that play off!  Feeling in competitive spirits we spied a ping pong table outside and decided to try our hand at that.  It was an epic fail of course, consisting mostly of running after the ping pong ball!  Before heading home we decided to check out a club but since we didn’t know the area well the place we chose was lame and the dancing didn’t last long.  We made our way over to Burger King... because who can go home after drinking without a big fat burger?  Then back to the hotel we finally went.  Although the awesome night we had was definitely worth it, looking at the bank statement the following day was not fun!

Our next adventure was to Seattle.  It was just Jake and I and he had booked us into a hotel for the night.  Apparently this was supposed to be a surprise, which Pat accidentally let slip at dinner in Canada!  Oops!  Before we left home, Christy and I prepared some leftover turkey sandwiches for the homeless.  After parking the car at the hotel, we made our way on foot to the space needle, handing out turkey sandwiches on our way (which was super heartwarming).  We couldn’t enter the space needle with food and we still had sandwiches left so we placed the bag down on a set of stairs and made our way up.  When we were in the elevator on the way down, we looked for the bag of sandwiches to find they were already gone!  Once at the bottom, we came to realise that a homeless man nearby had found them.  As we passed him he looked like the happiest homeless I’d ever seen, doing a little dance and singing!

Up in the space needle we had the most amazing view of the Seattle skyline.  It was a crazy windy day!  The two of us went outdoors to walk around the outside of the needle, which lasted all of 2 minutes as we were worried we’d be blown away!  Not to mention, it was bloody freezing up there!!

We had a very romantic dinner in the space needle, with a 360 view of the Seattle skyline.  I was startled by how expensive everything was, I’m pretty sure my meal was around $80!  I had ribs (of course) that were extremely rich, extremely fatty and ridiculously delicious!  I guess I wasn’t used to eating like royalty though, as I ended the night by throwing that $80 meal up into the toilet, a few hours later!!!

I loved looking through the EMP museum and the science museum, unfortunately I couldn’t read everything because we didn’t have the time.  My favourite part of the EMP museum was reading all about Kurt Cobain and his Nirvana years, looking at all of his beaten up guitars.  There was a section in the science museum all about “Grossology” and the body, Jake and I must have looked like kids since we were in fits of laughter over all the gross facts and activities we found in there.  At the end of our visit to the science museum I found a Seattle Mariners cap that someone had left behind.  I was going to keep it and send it home for Joe but I felt guilty and we ended up handing it in… only to turn around and find the security lady trying it on!

The following day before we headed back to Lake Stevens, we went to the Pike Place markets and the aquarium.  Jake had bought us a city pass which got us into all of these Seattle places as part of a deal.  At the markets we saw the first EVER Starbucks - that was pretty wild.  Very old school.  I always thought Starbucks was a 2000s business, but apparently not even close!  Next we went to a Russian pastry store and each got a pastry for breakfast.  I can’t remember the name of them, but if you’re an Orange is the New Black fan you’ll probably remember that Red was obsessed with them, it’s on the tip of my tongue… I’ll come back and edit this if I think of what it’s called!  Anyway, they were DELICIOUS.  I could have eaten 20 of them.  Easily.  We then walked around looking at the hundreds of stores.  Our favourite stores were the ones with vintage things like records, books and posters… we bought lots of items at those places.  There was also a fish market there.  Whenever someone buys a fish they yell out stuff super loud and throw the fish back and forth across the walkway to one another!  Then they get the customer to come behind the counter and throw the fish and catch it when it’s thrown back!  The girl we watched dropped it, but it looked like a huge slippery fish so I don’t blame her!

The aquarium wasn’t that great.  We loved watching the otters and seals, they were super cute and one was sucking his tail while sleeping!  Just gorgeous.  It was a pretty small aquarium though and we got through it quickly.  We did get some fun photos of me with the octopus above my head and the jellyfish surrounding me!

Jake indulged me in my Twilight fandom for 2 days, such patience and generosity!  We drove out to Forks which is the town that Twilight is based in and where Stephanie Meyer drew all her inspiration from for the books.  To be honest it was a let down because the movie was filmed in Portland so nothing we saw was really in the movie, just a whole bunch of fake stuff for fans to take photos with!  We headed out to Port Angeles that night to have dinner at “Bella Italia” which poses as the restaurant where Bella and Edward have their first date.  Of course I had to order the same as her and chose the mushroom ravioli!  We found an incredible book store there and spent an hour piling up all the books we both wanted to buy!  We stayed in another KOA cabin and this one was much nicer and more spacious than the last.  We spent that night sitting in bed watching Twilight and drinking champagne, how did I get so lucky!?!?  Before heading home the next day we went by La Push, which is the beach on the reserve in the Twilight movie.  Even though it wasn’t actually filmed on this beach it was awesome to see where Stephanie got her inspiration.  I could truly imagine the movie being shot there and don’t understand why they didn’t!

The night before Jake’s flight to Hawaii, I was a mess.  To lift my spirits Jake gifted me a beautiful ring set with four small opal stones.  His grandmother had given it to his mom and I feel very special to have what I guess is now a family heirloom!  Saying ‘see you soon’ to Jake was no easy feat.  I was a mountain of tears in the airport and didn’t want to let go but seeing how sure he was about us made me realise, the small amount of time we need to spend apart is nothing compared to a lifetime with him!  I never thought I’d come to America and fall in love with someone who not only makes me happier than ever, but encourages me to explore and grow as a person every. single. day.

After Jake left I was able to stay with the Barrett’s for four more days and I’m super happy that I did.  Sam and I went to see Hairspray the musical at Lake Stevens high school.  We both weren’t sure whether it was going to be any good - but it was AMAZING.  The singing, the dancing and the acting were all on point and we both loved every minute of it!

Tim and Christy took me back into Seattle, keeping me busy.  We ate lunch at the Red Robin on the waterfront.  Then Christy and I went on the Argosy cruise and saw all of the best Seattle views from the water.  The three of us then went to the Ballard locks.  This is a ship canal between Ballard and Magnolia.  We watched one of the boats come through and had to laugh at the two people on their big boat that were waving at everyone like they were royalty.  It was actually really fun to watch the water fill up and then drain out of the huge locks, I had no idea there was such a thing.

On one of the other days, Tim and Christy took me on a mini road trip out to Deception Pass and Whidbey Island.  Deception Pass is a strait that separates Whidbey Island from Fidalgo Island.  The big bridge was very high and scary, but we had amazing views when we walked halfway out!  We drank some beer on our way back over on the ferry and then went to dinner at a place called Arnie’s.  We had a beautiful view of the water!

Pat and Sam bought me a ticket to see an ice hockey game with them.  Before the game we went to a pizza place called Mod that they had been talking about since I arrived.  The pizzas are made right in front of you and all thrown into a huge pizza oven.  It was a busy night and we had to wait a long time and were all super hungry.  The wait was worth it though!  From memory I think it was Silvertips vs. All Americans playing, both Washington state teams.  It was my first game and definitely won’t be my last!  It’s such an entertaining sport to watch!

Travelling back to DC was terrible.  Not only was I sad to be leaving my new family but the actual travel itself took a ridiculous amount of time.  The flight seemed much slower than it was and once we touched down I still had to make my way back home via metro and multiple taxis.  What would have been a 45 minute drive in the car, turned into a 2 hour trek with a blistered hand from pulling along 100 pounds of luggage!  Happy thanksgiving to me!  It definitely takes some getting used to, coming back to reality after a vacation.

I had an interesting adventure heading up to New York for my final course for the year, at the beginning of December.  My mode of transport was bus and it was such a disaster.  Let’s just take note of how often I have shit luck with transport!!!  Why me!?!?  Seriously.  An hour into the trip the bus pulled over and shut down!  None of us knew what the heck was going on because the driver said nothing.  He got off to do something, then got back on, started it up and kept going.  We were all so confused.  30 minutes later he had to pull over again!  He told us that the bus computer was broken and that he couldn’t confirm we’d make it all the way there, then continued to drive!  The third time he pulled over, another bus pulled in behind us and he had half the passengers move onto that bus - which was going to New Jersey!  I was stuck on a broken bus worried about whether it would blow up or cause a fatal accident.  Great.  We did eventually make it, after many discussions between various passengers and the driver about our safety!  I was very relieved to be out of there, that’s for sure.  I’ve become a NYC public transport pro.  Maybe not the subway because that’s extremely confusing compared to DC.  I was able to make my way over to Long Island using trains and buses… I must admit I’m very proud of that!  

This time the course was very different in terms of ‘loner Kelly’.  I was staying in the dorm with a bunch of the other girls and I was able to make a small group of friends.  A couple of them were in my class, so I even had people to sit with!  At meal times I was able to walk over to the cafeteria with the same girls and had a little group to sit with.  A much better experience than last time.  AND one of the girls was a KIWI!  CRAZY!

In my last post I mentioned how I had an amazing group of girlfriends who I’d been spending a lot of time with and would be mentioning a lot in my next posts.  Well, that seems to no longer be the case for most!  Sarah is back in Germany but we do Skype when we can.  Teresa is au pairing in Ireland - WOW!  Claudia has been spending a lot of time with her boy “friend” Dany and I really have to work hard to get her out and about!  Which means I haven’t seen her host dad’s cousin Kim in a very long time.  It takes DeeDee a decent amount of time to get most places on public transport since she technically lives in Maryland, so I haven’t seen her since I got back from Seattle!  That leaves Sophie, who’s busy with school but is always up for meeting me which is great!  We went to see the movie ‘Sisters’ recently, I most definitely recommend it, we were in fits of laughter!  I’m trying to get everyone together this weekend for the Super Bowl, so we’ll see how that pans out!  Friends definitely come and go quickly as an au pair.  Maybe it’s a girl thing too.  Oh well, I shall continue to make connections and try to be the social butterfly that I most definitely am not!  I need to keep busy as a bee.

With love from DC xx

[wander-lustier]

29.11.15

I have now learnt that as an au pair, you will make many friends and lose many friends.  Sometimes you lose them because you choose to and other times you lose them because it’s time for them to go home.  

I’m going to give you a mini run down on who the ladies in my life are at the moment.  I’ll be mentioning names a lot in my next posts and I don’t want everyone to be absolutely confused.

Sarah is from Germany.  I’ve mentioned her name before because we’ve been friends ever since I arrived here.  Unfortunately, her time in the US is up and she’s now back on home turf - which sucks for me!  But she’s doing really well and has got her dream travel job as an air hostess for a German airline called Lufthansa.  So proud of her!

Sophie is from New Jersey (USA).  I can’t recall if I’ve mentioned her before but I met her through one of Jacob’s boys, months ago.  She’s at the very beginning of her medical studies at Georgetown University and has a loooong road ahead of her!  She’s doing such an amazing job though and is so passionate about her work.

Claudia is from France.  She arrived here as an au pair about two months ago and is working for a family in my neighbourhood.  It’s great because she takes care of two girls around the same ages as Juju and Madison - which means playdates during work hours (for us too!).  Madison’s best friend is Claudia’s girl, Olivia!

DeeDee is from South Africa.  Claudia and I had organised a dinner at a local Japanese restaurant called Murasaki.  DeeDee tagged along with one of the girls we had invited, then it turned out she got along even better with us!  We’ve made it our mutual goal to do something we haven’t yet done, each available weekend from now on.

Kim is from Nevada (USA).  She’s the cousin of Claudia’s host dad and I met her one night when we were out clubbing.  Ever since, she’s tried to make it to everything we do!  Kim works full time in DC and she’s always so much fun - I’m guessing that’s what comes with living 15 mins outside of Vegas!

Teresa is from Spain.  I only met Teresa recently - Claudia met her at the gym (which I now attend full force, by the way!).  She’s the youngest of our group and super cute, always giggling about something!  She’s also not an au pair and unfortunately was only here in DC for a short time to travel the USA and visit family… we’re so sad that she’s leaving!

Hahhahahaha I feel like I just gave all my friends a review for “DC’s most eligible bachelorette” or something… LOL!  I’m so blessed to have found such a diverse group of friends who are always willing to get out and have fun!

I’ve obviously done so many things during the time between my last post and today and I feel that a lot of them are just unimportant events like eating food and chilling.  I’m just going to skip all of those things in order to catch up with myself and get ahead of this blogging game once and for all!  If I post some unexplained photos then just slide them into the ‘eating food and chilling’ category, ha ha!

I’m writing this post on my return flight from Seattle - you’ll hear all about that in my next post… which I PROMISE won’t take as long to appear.  I’ll also fill you in on all the Halloween fun and festivities!

My birthday was a long time ago now - September 1st.  It was definitely difficult to be away from my family for the first time ever on this day.  No cheerful morning wake up and special breakfast from Mumma, no Daddy cuddles and no joking around with my brothers.  Instead I Skyped with Ma and Pa, opened the package they had sent over for me and cried when I read Mum’s soppy birthday card!  I spent the day with Juju and Madison, but also took care of the neighbour’s daughter.  Jake came over in the morning with a big present for me to open.  He bought me a modern record player from my favourite store!  I had been wanting one for years but couldn’t get it because it wouldn’t ship to NZ.  I was super excited!  I couldn’t test it out until the end of the day as we all spent the day at the zoo - it was super hot, which made for an exhausting expedition!  I ended up crashing out on the couch before dinner.  Ben was away on business for my birthday and didn’t arrive back until very late that night.  Becca made us all tacos for dinner followed by a yummy cake!  The Weir’s got me the perfect gift - credit to spend at my favourite store Urban Outfitters, where Jake and I spent the evening finding records and clothing.  Juju and Madison gave me a framed set of photos with themselves holding artwork they’d created that spelled out “We ‘Heart’ Kelly”… it’s adorable!  When we arrived home from shopping we sat down with Becca to watch Pretty Woman.  Most quiet birthday I’ve had in a long time!

The next morning I went downstairs to find a giraffe themed birthday gift from Ben - he has an ongoing joke that I’m a giraffe!  Jake came over again that night and we had a family game of ‘Rotten Apples’.

At the end of September I attended classes in New York at Long Island University, where I’m going back to next weekend.  Jacob and I had booked a Hilton hotel for the 2 nights we would be there.  He was working at the white house for the first night so he didn’t arrive until after midnight.  Travelling up to New York alone was an adventure!  I took the metro, a bus, the subway and an uber - I can’t believe I actually made it!  The pope had just been in DC where the traffic had been horrible, so fortunately for me I had followed him up to NYC and it took the bus driver over an hour (after arriving) to be able to pull over and let us off!  The class I attended was all about diverse learners so it was fun to be taking a class based on my passion!  My teacher was great, she loved to talk and she had us watch multiple videos on the subject, it was very chill.  All of the other au pairs in my class already had little cliques based on where they were from, so of course me being the only Kiwi meant I was also a loner.  I didn’t mind though… apart from when it came to lunch or dinner when I sat by myself in the corner of the cafeteria ha ha.  Next time I will be lodging at the university, which I guess will give me a chance to make friends with my roomies.  The second night Jake and I were at the Hilton we drank champagne and swam in the hot tub and pool, which has become our hotel stay tradition.  Sunday we slept in and drove home, then went out to Cava for a lovely dinner of Mediterranean tapas, which was Dad’s special treat for my birthday.

The last few days that I was able to spend with Sarah were full of fun activities.  We went to see ‘Straight Outta Compton’ at the Georgetown movie theatre, a movie all about N.W.A. and how they began/ended - I highly recommend it, if you’re into old school hip hop music.  Sarah stayed at my place for the night and the next day we went into Georgetown again for lunch at Johnny Rocket and some shopping.  That night we got to see Kyle and Jacob again after they had been in the field for a week, without contact - it was very exciting!  We drove out to Sarah’s to have a final night of boozing together.  Her very last night with us we all went to Great Falls for a picnic with Sophie and Norris.

Jacob is now stationed in Hawaii for the next 16 months.  He is being deployed for 6 of those months for training in Japan, Korea and the Philippines!  It will be Jake’s first time travelling overseas and he’s very excited for all the special training.  He’ll be in Southern California for 6 weeks during January/February and I’ll be heading out there for a weekend to see him.  In April I’ll be vacationing in Hawaii for a week and then we’ll be doing the 8 month long haul, eeeek!

In other news I have a bunch of new families to babysit for in the neighbourhood, I’ve joined the local gym with Claudia for group fitness classes, Jake and I went to a country music festival in Delaware with a bunch of Marine lads and saw Lee Brice live, and the girls are growing quicker than ever - Julianne is becoming super beautiful and intelligent, and Madison, cuter and funnier by the day!

This year has gone by so fast… only 3 more months until I’ve been living in 'MERICA for a full year!

With love from DC xx

[wander-lustier]

02.10.2015

Luckily in my last post here I didn’t promise a release date for this one!  It has now been 2 months since Texas.  Ooooops sorry!  Maybe one day I will finally catch up with myself.

Shout out to my (not so) baby bro who turned 12 recently!  Happy birthday bud! Also, happy birthday to Poppa!  His birthday was in August, but I haven’t posted since then! Annnd also… happy (late) NZ father’s day to my Daddy!  Love you!

It seems like aaaaages ago since my big brother was here with me.  I loved having him here and I can’t even explain how great it was to see a family member again!  Ben and I drove out to pick Tom up from the airport - of course Ben was all excited, expecting me to cry… which I didn’t.  Don’t get me wrong I was excited to see my brother, but I can’t be a sook in front of him!  My eyes did well up, but I refused to let the tears roll down my face.  When he left Texas to head home to New Zealand, that was a different story!  Having to say goodbye all over again was not fun.

For Tom’s second night in DC I took him to the barracks for a night out on 8th Street with the marines.  A lot of alcohol was consumed and many games of pool were played.  Thankfully they put him in an Uber and got him home safely at the end of the night!  He hit it off well with a bunch of them who still ask me about him today!  Jacob received big brother approval too, woohoo!   To follow up on my marine core fandom, the next night I took him to the marine parade.  Unfortunately we had the worst seats imaginable and basically couldn’t see a thing.  Boo.  One bonus was that we were seated right behind the huge canons and it happened that the body bearers were going to be firing the canons that night… something I hadn’t seen yet!  The body bearers are huge, I think their arms would have been as big as my thighs alone!  The canons were ridiculously loud!  They must have fired them 4 or 5 times and each time they went off I jumped right out of my seat!  It was very cool!

Now, get comfortable, New York is a story to tell.  Eight of us were heading over there for a weekend of touristy activities and Broadway.  The eight of us being myself, Tom, Jacob, Gu, Norris, Sophie, Kyle and Sarah.  It started with a bang and ended with an even bigger bang!  Luckily, Tom didn’t need to stress about any of it and was still able to have an enjoyable time… not that we didn’t all enjoy ourselves, of course.  As the marine parade came to a close, Tom and I walked over to the barracks to wait for Jacob so that we could jump in the car and be on our way.  We ended up having to wait for an hour because one of the marines in the platoon had messed up, which of course meant they were all held back… just like in school!  We made the most of it though and went to 7/11 to get a slurpee - something Tom hadn’t done yet, and a must do American thing (in all the movies)!

At 11:30pm we were able to leave for New York, which meant we wouldn’t be checking into the inn until 3:30am at the earliest!  I had booked the accommodation for all of us in advance to secure a good deal for everyone.  Unfortunately the place I had booked (even though I had spoken on the phone to someone about it) didn’t exist!  An hour was wasted searching all over Brooklyn for our non-existent accommodation, beginning in the most dodgy looking area where the supposed street address had led us to.  There was much debate over whether to knock on the door of the low-income housing house that belonged to God knows who!?  Eventually after finding a safer area to park in Brooklyn (where everything called for a hilarious remark of “that’s hipster”), we began sending numerous text messages and trying to call the “owner” of this place multiple times.  After getting nowhere we decided to call the booking website where I had found this “inn”.  After sitting on hold for 10-20 minutes we spoke to a very helpful man who informed us that the place we were supposed to be staying had been closed down for a very long time, and we would have to find a new place to stay.  Luckily whoever was behind the silly scam was not able to get his hands on our money!  Therefore, at 5am in the morning, with no sleep and no bed to sleep in we began making phone calls to what felt like a billion different hotels, in search of 4 comfortable (and reliable) beds!  Approximately an hour later we were successful.  Jacob gave his details over the phone and secured our spot!  We headed to McDonald’s for breakfast and then after parking near the new hotel which we would check in to at 3pm, we made our way into the city via the subway train - to embark on our big city bus tour!  I had done this all before so it wasn’t new for me but I was excited for Tom to see everything, and Jacob too.  Before our tour we needed to make a pit stop at one of the NYC electronic/knick knack stores, as the first world problem of dying cell phones had begun… yet another grand perk of no hotel room.  We then found out after sitting in a Starbucks for an hour or more, awaiting phone charge success, that buying electronics in central NYC is not the best idea.  So much money, for poor charging material.  As you can already tell, many lessons were learnt during this adventure!  When we finally jumped on the tour bus we went all over lower Manhattan seeing the Empire State Building, Statue of Liberty, Madison Square Garden and plenty more!  It was a ridiculously hot day to be sitting on the topless second deck of the bus and together with our lack of sleep, the end of the tour had us exhausted!  When I say exhausted, I mean it!  

Tom had booked tickets to a broadway show called The Book of Mormon.  Now, I don’t know a lot about this show, all I really know is that it was made by the same producers of South Park, it’s hilarious, well done, and has raving reviews!  Here is a description of it that I found online, since I don’t have Tom to describe it to me in more detail:

“The Book of Mormon follows two young missionaries who are sent to Uganda to try to convert citizens to the Mormon religion.  One missionary, Elder Price, is an enthusiastic go-getter with a strong dedication to his faith, while his partner, Elder Cunningham, is a socially awkward but well meaning nerd whose tendency to embroider the truth soon lands him in trouble.  Upon their arrival in Africa, Price and Cunningham learn that in a society plagued by AIDS, poverty and violence, a successful mission may not be as easy as they expected. Composed by South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone and Avenue Q’s Robert Lopez, The Book of Mormon is an old-style musical with a modern sensibility.  This blockbuster show features several big song-and-dance numbers accompanied by some old-fashioned Broadway belting.  An equal opportunity offender, the show playfully pokes fun at religion, sexuality, poverty and race.”

For the amount of moo-la he spent on his ticket, it had to be great!  It proved to be extremely popular, as when he booked his ticket there were only two single seats available!

Now while Tom was sitting back, watching Broadway and trying to stay awake by consuming energy drinks… the rest of us were having trouble.  A lot more trouble than we had intended to have.  By the time our tour was over, it was perfect timing for us to check in to our hotel.  The seven of us arrived, relieved and ready to pass out for an hour or two, only to find that there was no booking under the name “Barrett” (Jacob’s surname).  WHAT!?  You can imagine how pissed this made us feel!  The hotel had somehow managed to put Jacob’s card number under someone else's booking for months later and seemed to have no actual booking for us.  No matter how much we tried to prove our point the dick heads behind the counter would not listen.  FRUSTRATING!  They told us we would need to call customer service and organise a room at a new hotel, as they had no more rooms available.  Jacob spent the next two hours on the phone with customer service, bartering the price of the new hotel - trying to make it equal value to what we had originally booked at this second hotel!  When they finally agreed on the price, the place we were staying was a lot further out than we had hoped it would be.  There were many a long subway ride back and forth in NYC that night.

When we had relocated to our THIRD hotel (which thankfully did exist, and was under “Barrett”), everyone except Jacob and I were able to take naps.  Christy and Tim - Jacob’s parents - had been so incredibly generous to buy us tickets to Wicked on Broadway, which we were both excited to see!  Unfortunately by this point we had been lacking sleep for at least 30 hours and to stay awake throughout the show was proving to be very tough.  We did see majority of it and it most definitely exceeded our expectations, but we had to go to extreme lengths to try and stay awake!  From drinking frozen slushies to pinching each other whenever we noticed the other falling asleep!  At one point we both fell asleep at the same time and were eventually woken up by the wicked witch screeching, we both jumped awake and looked around us to check no one had seen…  Haha!  While we were watching Broadway, Tom met up with cousin Adam for a Yale style party!  He had a great time and said it was awesome to catch up with Adam in America.  Apparently drinks were ridiculously expensive, so after buying their first round Tom decided to stay back and wait for someone else to offer - and since it was Yale kids, I take it this happened often.  I felt like a worried mother all night, waiting to hear back about my big brother making it home and kept messaging him offering for Jacob and I to pick him up!  He did make it home safe and sound though… eventually!

The next morning we decided that Tom needed to try IHOP (International House of Pancakes), kind of like flapjacks in NZ - except much, much shittier.  We spent too long sitting in the waiting area, waiting for our table.  At the end of our average meal we all settled our cheques… but Jacob’s came back as declined, which was absurd because he had plenty of money.  He used a different card instead and looked up his transactions online, only to find that the second hotel we had tried to stay at had charged his card!  Over $400!  We didn’t understand why that had happened when they had told us there was no booking for us even after looking up his card number.  It was time to leave for home and we all planned to stop into Philadelphia on our way.  Jacob and I obviously had some talking to do with the front desk asshole at hotel number two, so we told the others to go ahead without us and we would meet them there later.  We spent an hour on the phone to the hotel and got nowhere.  Deciding to drive back to that hotel and see this dude face to face, we drove 45 minutes to it’s location… only to still be told we were wrong!  It was one of those moments where you just have nothing to say because you’re so blown away with how stupid the person is.  After Mr. front desk asshole spoke on the phone to Jacob’s bank and was told the charge was most definitely on his account and that yes, the address was the location of their hotel (and not a different one), the man decided to swipe Jacob’s card and WHATDOYAKNOW they had put our room under a completely different surname.  Basically this amateur fuck up had ruined our trip.  We were mad.  But also satisfied that we had finally proved we were in fact the winners in this war!  When we were buckled into the car and on our way out of NYC, a fist bump was in order in celebration of our perfect team work!  It was a mission getting out of the city since it was now around 5pm and traffic was packed.  Yes, it took us THAT long to sort everything out!

Everyone else was a little ahead of us when we arrived in Philly and already on their way to Paddy’s Pub (the pub that inspired the one on the TV series ‘Always Sunny in Philadelphia’) - which Tom and I had been big fans of.  Jacob and I quickly checked out the Rocky Steps, named after Rocky, the professional American heavyweight boxer.  We wandered to the top, took a few snaps and then headed over to the pub.  There was time to rehydrate, catch up on the days adventures with the others, and then head onwards.  Tom rode with Jacob and I.  Including a toilet stop and Macca’s stop, we made it home by midnight.  It was a brief trip to Philly for Jacob and I, but at least I know I can pop back there any weekend I like!

We had three more days in DC until we embarked on our Texas adventure, which Tom spent at the movie theatre, shopping and looking at museums, memorials and monuments.  We bought tickets to a couple of baseball games which we attended in the evenings.  We had the best seats ever for such a great price!  Both games were the Washington Nationals vs. Arizona Diamondbacks.  The first night we sat behind the dugout between home and first bases.  Tom’s favourite pitcher Scherzer was on so we had a perfect view of him!  Plus the Washington Nationals won!  The second night, Jacob joined us and we were seated behind the bullpen (which is where the players warm up/train while the game is going).  We were able to get great photos and videos of them up close too.  Unfortunately the second night the Diamondbacks won the game.  It was still amusing to see the dynamics of the crowds in comparison to the night our home team won.  They were totally different for both.  One thing we couldn’t believe was that when DC was losing, everyone was slowly getting up and leaving the game!  By the time the game was over there was only a handful of people left!  We couldn’t understand how “supporters” could just walk away and not actually support their team!  Ben later told me that it’s not always like that and it depends on the state (and the amount of money the people have to waste on tickets).  Of course there were the dudes walking around with drinks and snacks to sell and we sucked ourselves into buying a few things.  There was this one old guy selling lemonade during the first game.  He had the MOST annoying voice and just yelled out “LEMONAAAADE” over and over again all night long.  For the second game he was a little ways away from us but we could still hear him over everything yelling out “LEMONAAAADE”, so it became a running joke.  Tom and Jacob would randomly mimic him, which was making us all fall into fits of laughter.

Next was Texas!  Woohoo!  A holiday with my brother, which I had been looking forward to for a long time!  Tom’s main reason for heading to Texas was for a gamers convention, run by a group called Rooster Teeth who host a show on YouTube.  It was in Austin which was the city in Texas that I most wanted to visit.  Because he was mostly at his convention we didn’t really see a lot of each other, but the time we did spend together was most definitely well spent!

We got to know Uber very well on this trip as everywhere we went, we ordered one.  I’m not too sure if Uber has migrated to NZ yet so let me explain… Uber is an application that connects people who need a ride, with drivers.  Uber drivers use their own car and can work any hours they choose.  The actual driver earns 80% (I believe) of what your ride costs and they are cheaper than a regular taxi.  Essentially, they’re your own private driver.  It usually takes no more than 5-10 minutes for your driver to arrive because there’s always someone nearby that can accept your request!  Also, you add your card details to this app and it automatically pays the driver at the end of your ride.  No hassle trying to settle the payment!  It’s so simple!

First place we went to was the Austin convention center.  Tom needed to collect his tickets for the convention.  Oh my, the people I saw there.  Girls with purple, orange, blue and pink hair (and guys too), it was a NERD FEST.  I kept making jokes to Tom such as “It’s a shame you forgot your glasses, you’d fit right in”.  When we were out one evening we saw some of ‘those people’, they were wearing the RTX convention bag and I said “Hey, Tom!  There’s your people!”.  Let’s just say I was on a roll with the nerd jokes.  

I think the whole time we were there we only managed to have two meals together.  He was so busy with the convention that once it was over he didn’t want to come out.  But fair enough, he’d been standing in lines all day waiting on fellow gamers.  The meals we did have together were very enjoyable.  Especially when we went for late lunch/early dinner on arrival - we were both very excited to be in Texas.  There was a lot of laughter and loud conversation!  Before heading back to the hostel we were staying in, Tom went to a liquor store and bought us some Lone Star beer - the beer you see on any Texan TV show or film!  We were right on the edge of a river, so the view from the backyard of the hostel was excellent.  Funnily enough I noticed that two of the other people staying in our dorm were Kiwis!  Of course, I invited them outside to share our beer, along with the Canadian we met (unfortunately I can’t remember any names) who came out with more beer to share around!  We had an awesome time reminiscing about the ‘Kiwi’ way and talking about all the things that are totally different here in the US.  That night made me feel like I was back home!  Apart from the near 40 degree heat!!  

Nearing the end of the evening, myself, Tom and Mr. Canada decided to head out to a street full of night life, that had been recommended to us by the Kiwis.  We found something that was a little like a Biergarten (Texas style).  There was a huge selection of beers, Tom chose the worst ones possible - practically gagging, trying to swallow each mouthful!  He chose very, VERY aged beers that were super strong and dark.  There was a honky tonk band playing which was fun!  It was a very loud venue, full of happy vibes!  Mr. Canada ordered us some boiled peanuts - he said it was something Southern that we had to try while we were there.  It was a first time for him also.  Basically it was a jar of peanuts in their shell, only they had been soaked in something that looked like sewage water, and smelt even worse.  We all tried our first one at the same time.  When cracking the now softened shell we dripped sewage water all down our arms.  The peanut was soft and mushy - the taste and texture in my mouth was revolting!  NEVER AGAIN.  After that we made our way over to what is referred to as “Dirty Sixth Street”, a big long street lined with clubs who had promoters outside trying to entice you in.  I guess there was so much competition along the one street that business was tight.  There were a few places that looked decent, but overall it was pretty trashy!  The cool thing about it was that they closed off the whole street during the weekends.  My guess is that it helps prevent all the drunks walking out onto a busy street and getting hit by cars…

Since Tom was spending his days in the convention I thought it would be nice to have someone to hang out with and show me around.  Thankfully I was eventually put in touch with a friend of a friend of a friend (or something like that) and driven around in an old school black Cadillac to a few different must see places!  Before Cole arrived I went to take a look at the capitol building which is the biggest one in all of the USA - even bigger than the white house!  It was incredible, I was able to see all through the inside and walked around the outside of it.  I then went to the visitor information section and watched some of the mini movies about Texas history.  Cole was a great tour guide and I was able to see a few things I would have otherwise missed out on!  Our first destination was the Hamilton pool.  It’s a natural spring which looked stunning in the photos on Google, it was somewhere I was looking forward to seeing AND swimming in… the heat was unbearable!  We drove out there, taking maybe an hour, only to be told that there was currently no swimming in the Hamilton pool due to recent flooding.  The woman in the booth told us that we were welcome to take a look but it was a reasonably long hike downhill… meaning we would have to hike back up afterwards.  No thanks.  Instead we went to the Barton Springs pool.  Another hour back again + some!  I was definitely grateful to finally be in water!  We stayed until sundown and then he dropped me back at the hostel.  

The second hostel that Tom and I stayed in was just for a single night.  It was right in Austin central, across the road from the university.  There were a lot of young people and it was VERY ‘Austiny’.  Weird graffiti paintings of weird characters all over the walls, I felt like I was on an episode of Adventure Time!  The next day, Tom left early for his convention so I never saw him.  I left later in the morning and went for a walk (in the blistering heat), down to my favourite store, Urban Outfitters.  Completed some shopping, which is obviously a must when on vacation and then grabbed a bite to eat before moving our belongings back to the original hostel, via Uber of course!  That night Cole took me to a frat party!  It was crazy and when I arrived home early that morning I had to shower immediately.  Everyone’s drinks are just in cups, so when you’re dancing you get soaked in alcohol.  Very disgusting when I think about it now, but it was super fun at the time!  All of the girls at the frat party were extremely cliquey and unwelcoming, but I still managed to have a great time!  I must say, I’m quite content with frat parties being a one time only experience.

During the day in the middle of our vacation, Cole picked me up and took me to Franklin’s BBQ.  Franklin’s is very famous in Austin and they make AMAZING BBQ.  It’s well known by Austinites that waiting for Franklin’s BBQ can take hours.  We thought we’d take our chances and I had nothing better to do that day.  When we arrived, one of the waitresses approached us and said there was a 1 hour wait time (which is short - for Franklin’s!) and that they were beginning to sell out.  We were welcome to wait in line but there was a chance we wouldn’t get anything at the end of that wait!  Still, we took our chances.  An hour later we were at the front of the line ordering our brisket!  I had never heard of this before, it’s just meat cut from the breast of a cow, cooked with a delicious crunchy crust of herbs & spices.  We also ordered a serving of pulled pork.  They smother this in a delicious specialty smokey BBQ sauce and provide you with bread to make brisket  and pulled pork sandwiches.  We went with a reasonably small amount and I was FULL at the end of it.  It seemed that the tradition was to buy as much of it as possible!  Everyone had a huge tray between two that had a stack of bread, a pile of brisket, pulled pork and some other BBQ food, like ribs and sausage.  The serving sizes were pretty disgusting so here’s hoping they asked for a doggy bag!

On our final day in Texas, Tom and I bought tickets to SeaWorld and travelled by bus to San Antonio.  It was an awesome sibling day and a great way to bring my time with Tom to a close!  We had enough time to watch pretty much all of the shows.  We saw whales, dolphins, seals, sea lions and otters.  For the whale show we sat right in the splash zone.  We had our belongings with us which we thought would be fine if we just tucked them behind our legs on the ground.  Within the first minute of the whale show we had an unbelievably large wave of water saturate us AND our belongings!  Tom took one for the team and went up top to keep our things dry.  I stayed in the splash zone and got soaked another 4 or 5 times!  Tom has that on video too!  We an absolutely awesome day and when we got back to Austin late at night we went out for dinner, then headed back to rest up before departure day… which I was secretly dreading.

Saying goodbye to my brother SUCKED!  I gave him a big hug and jumped into my boarding line.  Tom had decided to stand by and wait for me to board the plane, so I had to hold back my tears!  I was feeling very emotional about saying goodbye for another full year and eight months!  I was adamant to not let him see me tear up, so as soon as I had waved goodbye and turned my back, boarding the plane, I burst into tears!  By the time we took off I was okay, but don’t goodbyes suck!?  I had two seats to myself on the plane, so that was a great perk.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed those 5 pages of stories!  I must say it took me so long because I would write a paragraph or two and then get writers block and avoid the document for at least a week!  Hopefully I can catch up with myself in the next month before I have more outside DC travel stories to tell!

With love from DC xx

[wander-lustier]

18.08.2015

Tom was here in DC with me, I had a roommate for a week!  Plus another week in Texas, we left last Thursday!  I must admit it was great to have 5 days of sleep-ins!

I’ve noticed in my blogs I overdose on exclamation marks, but I feel that’s just because everything I’m doing is super exciting!  Just grin and bare it!

It was very exciting having Tom here with me but I still have other things I haven’t written about from before he arrived.  This post is going to be about those series of events and my following blog will cover everything that Tom and I did during his stay.  I’m trying to catch up with myself but it’s too difficult!

A while ago I cooked dinner for Jacob for the first time.  I made a chicken meal with an avocado and strawberry salad.  We had the leftovers for lunch the next day in sandwiches!  We had a picnic on the grass below the capitol building but the squirrels invaded our area and we ended up having to move away.  Two squirrels sat there watching us eating so we threw them each a strawberry, then a second one and then a third one that they couldn’t find.  They seemed rabid after a while, they started getting closer by the minute and gnashing their teeth.  The fact that Jacob was uncomfortable is saying something!  We went and sat on a park bench, feeling like idiots after being scared off by tiny squirrels!  Scary squirrels!

Jacob cooked dinner for me a number of weeks ago and I was very impressed!  He made a Hawaiian meal called loco-moco.  Essentially it’s white rice, topped with a hamburger patty, fried egg and brown gravy.  I know, sounds kinda bland and gross, but it was delicious!  I don’t really know how to explain it but you should totally google it and try it out! He also taught me how to make a sherbet drink which they used to have all the time as kids.  It’s pretty much a spider, but made out of ‘sherbet’.  This is not the type of sherbet us kiwis would originally think of - powdered sugary stuff - but basically the same thing as sorbet.  He mixes it with Sprite and it’s super tasty!

I never knew this, because I’ve never really been to museums except for with school… but I recently realised that when I go to a museum, I need to read EVERYTHING.  It took Jacob and I (mostly just me, he wasn’t the one reading EVERYTHING) three 4-5 hour days to get through the National Gallery of Art!  And that was only one of the two wings!  Gu (another awesome marine lad) joined us for the final day at the museum, but he didn’t last the full four hours, Jacob deserved a medal of some kind, he was such a trooper!  It was a beautiful museum.  There was way too much artwork but I enjoyed majority of the exhibits.  My favourite pieces of art were the ones that involved the sea and majority of the photography exhibit was fascinating too.  I felt very intelligent for three days.  They also have a lovely gift shop at the Gallery of Art which I need to go back to at some point to have a decent browse through.

Juju’s summer break has been full-on!  Recently we’ve explored a few different baking recipes, which were of course delicious.  She was most proud of her blue velvet cake that was covered in bright pink frosting and sprinkles!  I love the phases she goes through, each month there’s a new theme.  A while back every night was someone’s birthday in the Weir household, if it wasn’t Mommy’s birthday then it was Daddy’s birthday and if it wasn’t their birthday - it was their dance party!  Every night is made extra special when Juju is around to celebrate!  Currently she’s going through a dress-up phase… if she’s not dressed up as a doctor and diagnosing you with onetwothreefourpeditis, she’s a fairy princess, or Elsa, or the queen “you have to call me your majesty” - priceless! We have also made our way down to Georgetown over the summer to meet Becca for lunch.  At the waterfront in Georgetown there’s a big fountain where many children play on hot days.  We took the girls down and it was a lot more powerful than I expected it to be!  Julianne was a little freaked by the pressure of the fountain, so I picked her up and carried her through.  I raced Madison through it on the scooter, but even she was taken aback by the pressure of the water.  It was a short but sweet visit to the Georgetown fountain.  There seem to be a lot of different splash parks in the area.  At most playgrounds there will be a splash park to the side of it which are continuously going throughout the day during summer.  I don’t think (from what I remember) that we have anything like that in New Zealand?  Essentially it’s just a bunch of little fountains with water shooting out in different directions which turn on and off at different times.  Juju likes to catch the water in buckets, Madison likes to poke her finger down the fountain when it turns off and then it sprays back up in her face when it comes on again… either that, or she’ll sit down in front of it and let it splash all over her!  Water baby!  They’re both loving the pool at the moment too.  We go there every Wednesday.  Juju is getting more and more confident in the water and Madison is eager to get in as soon as we arrive.

I’ve been lucky enough to see a lot of deer chilling on the side of the road lately.  Twice with Jacob and once with the girls.  The girls and I were on our way to a playground and walked right past one, we would have been able to touch it if we’d taken another 5 steps!  Also one night Jacob was driving me home and just before we reached my house we saw around 4 or 5 of them near the trees!  Again, I saw a few deer when Jacob and I parked up to eat dinner just recently, we were in a park near the stream and there were a few deer spread out around us!  One of them had some mighty big antlers too.  Dad would have a field day if he could!

Last month I went to ‘Jazz Night in the Sculpture Garden’.  Each Friday night over summer there’s a new Jazz act each week at this location.  They set up a stage and have mini bars spread out around the area.  People bring picnics or other forms of dinner and sit around listening to jazz music, it’s awesome!  We came along with our Subway sandwiches and saw that people were sitting around a wading pool - it was a HOT evening so we really wanted to do this too.  I said to Sarah that I doubted we’d find a spot but we walked around anyway and just as we got directly opposite the stage, two ladies got up and left!  We had such a great spot.  It was a very entertaining night.

Another event I attended last month was a Shakespeare performance of ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’.  I was super excited for this because in high school we’d studied this specific story and also performed the show ourselves.  We turn up to the theatre and step inside, take our seats and see a big screen in front of us with a small stage in front of that…  weird.  Turns out, the Shakespeare performance was just a recording of the live performance.  Definitely not what we were expecting.  It was still cool to watch but I was bummed that it wasn’t live.

Anyway… stay tuned for more Geronimo. Next up: Tom’s visit, NYC, Philadelphia & TX

I’m not going to promise when it will be finished, because let’s be honest, I never get these done in time.

With love from DC xx

[wander-lustier]

28.07.2015

It’s amazing how much you can make happen when you’re away from home and the usual comforts.  I am now vowing to myself that majority of the weekends I have when I’m back home, will be full of plans.  Whether it’s visiting family or friends, travelling to tourist destinations to explore or just going out and having an awesome night… I really want to keep this up!  Of course there’s the exception of a boxed in weekend of back to back Prison Break episodes or an all consuming book.

In between my trips to CA and NY a group of us headed out to an amusement park in Virginia called ‘Kings Dominion’.  I was scared shitless about going on a roller coaster for the first time but it was on my bucket list and this was an obvious opportunity.  It just had to be done.  Enough excuses had been made over my lifetime.  If I had been smart about this plan I would have looked at the ratings of the all the rides on the map to see which one would be most appropriate to begin the day.  But duh, I was too nervous to think strategically and so the first ride we went on was a horrible rickety wooden coaster.  I was shaking from head to toe when we hopped into the cart.  It’s a fun story to tell but when I was in the moment it was the most horrible thing EVER!  Tears started rolling down my cheeks as soon as the cart starting climbing the steep hill - heading towards the big drop of course.  This is why I was crying, in anticipation for the big drop which sent me screaming my stomach out of my mouth.  Followed by what felt like a million more drops and twists and turns.  Terrible, terrible feeling.  But I did it!  I crossed it off the list!  After that setback, I guess I became more and more confident as the day progressed.  Eventually I went on a ride called ‘WindSeeker’ (the picture is above).  Not a roller coaster, but basically you’re sitting in a swing type thing that seats two people, you have a bar across your lap of course, for safety.  It takes you slowly up over 300 feet into the air and spins you around.  It wasn’t so fast that it made me feel dizzy and sick, but it was still fast enough to make my heart jump!  I can proudly say Jacob said he thinks he felt more nervous than me!  I thought it was crazy fun and exhilarating.  I was facing a huge fear without a single tear in sight!  For our final ride of the night I told everyone I’d go on another roller coaster… this one was in the children’s section but the thrill rating was a 4/5 so it had to be good!  It was a moment of bravery, which turned into a whole lot of fun!  We stayed on the ride and kept going around three times as it was the very end of the night and no one was waiting in line!  It’s fair to say that there were only children with their parents on this ride - and some without their parents haha!  I’m such a wuss!

My root beer addiction is growing by the week and if you make it a root beer float I’m all in.  In New Zealand we call any mixture of soda and ice cream a ‘spider’.  Here in America there’s really only root beer floats, anything else is very uncommon.  It’s funny because I never considered a spider to be a ridiculous name, it was normal and everyone knew what that was - until I came here. It’s just like french toast, waffles or pancakes topped with fried banana, bacon and maple syrup!  The morning after Kings Dominion, Jake took me to Waffle House which was just like the kind of breakfast place you see on an old American movie.  The staff were making the waffles behind the breakfast bar, just like you were sitting at the breakfast bar at home - although we sat in a booth, not at the bar.  I wanted waffles with bacon on top but that wasn’t an option!  Instead I ordered plain waffles with a side of bacon.  When I received my meal I then put the bacon on top of my waffles and smothered it in syrup.  I began munching away and then realised Jacob was looking at me funny.  He told me that it was odd that I had put my bacon on top of my waffles and that generally people eat it separately.  I couldn’t believe it!!  How could you not eat waffles and bacon together as one!?  America needs to up it’s breakfast game.   A few weekends later I cooked french toast for Jacob - with all the lashings!  He was presented with a french toast, fried banana, bacon and syrup stack.  I believe I have the bragging rights to tell you he was extremely impressed.  I’m sure he will put bacon on top of his pancakes, waffles and french toast from now on.  Kiwi point proven.

Since the theme seems to currently be food, I would like to announce that I have now eaten raw fish twice in my life.  Jacob and I went out for dinner in Georgetown to a very hipster sushi joint called Maté.  Sushi in the US is very different from our Kiwified sushi.  They do it properly, with raw fish and fish eggs and gross stuff like that.  I found it very difficult to down the raw fish this time because a couple of times I used nothing to disguise the taste and texture. I have come to the conclusion that I dislike this kind of sushi.  When I first had raw fish with Becca I was putting on ginger and soy sauce so I couldn’t really tell.  At Maté I was sitting there trying not to gag as I swallowed the raw, chewy, slightly transparent ball of yucky. I guess the Kiwi in me likes chicken sushi and tempura prawns - I will take that any day over raw fish!

While we were in Georgetown we stopped in at the Exorcist stairs.  These were the stairs that featured in the movie - the stairs that the priest falls down.  From what I remember, there were 75 stairs and they were very steep.  We sat at the top of them for a while and then began to feel very lazy, there were a tonne of people running up and down them!  One woman in particular had her little dog with her and I swear her dog must have felt like passing out because she went up and back down five times, at the very least.  The little pup was running out of air!   At the top of the stairs was a plaque that told us more details about the stairs and also about movies and movie stars that had been filmed in Georgetown.  Tom Cruise seems to be the only one I can remember that was on there and I don’t remember any of the movie titles, but it was impressive and cool to be standing right where a handful of major movies had taken place!

We have been to Josh and Annie’s a couple of times lately.  It’s such a great place to hang out in the summer, grilling and jumping in the pool whenever you like.  Annie is pregnant and her baby is due very soon so that’s all new and exciting for them!

Juju is still on summer break which has been going since we arrived home from Buffalo, and doesn’t go back to school (NZ kindergarten level) until the end of August/beginning September!  We’ve been doing a lot of things since we have a full day with no interruption from the midday pickup.  When she does go back she’s going to be attending right through until 3pm which she is going to love!  The first thing she would say to me before summer break when I asked how her day at school was - “Good, but I missed second recess!” We spent a whole day on the National Mall a few weeks ago, went on the carousel and wandered around the air & space museum.  Juju and Madison were chasing each other through all of the exhibits in fits of laughter!  Madison would tackle Juju to the ground, or vice versa, which got all the passers by in fits of laughter also!  Great fun!   Jacob joined us on a couple of excursions to the zoo this month.  The heat was killer and by around 2-3pm each time we had to fold and make our way home.  The girls have nearly seen every single enclosure there in less than a month, so it’s been worth it! Madison has the biggest crush on Jacob, it is the cutest thing to see!  Whenever she sees him her face lights up and her arms start flapping about in excitement!  She’s forever blowing him kisses and playing cheeky games of peek-a-boo.  He even receives her precious open mouth smooches!  Very special indeed!

Mr. Marine and I attended a wedding in Charlottesville, Virginia for the 4th of July.  It was the smallest wedding I’ve ever heard of but it was super cute.  Jacob’s fellow marine, Austin, and his fiancé Mckenzie were married in a little park, under a big tree that’s branches made us feel like we were under a huge umbrella.  There would have only been around 10 others present, mostly Mckenzie’s family.   I ordered ribs (my favourite) at the place we ate dinner after the ceremony, I still miss the sauce from the NZ Lonestar ribs.  It’s the first place I want to eat when I get back home, ironically.  Since it was the 4th of July and we were staying in a hotel for the night we decided to buy some champagne and had a great time swimming in the pool, sipping away!

The Friday following this weekend away, Jacob had invited me as his date to a dinner hosted by the commandant of the marine corps.  He has a beautiful home that backs onto the field where the marine parade is held.  We were all standing around in his big backyard, little pockets of people everywhere eating food from the tables placed conveniently around with a large array of finger foods provided.  A walk-in tour of the commandant’s house took place for the first part of the evening but unfortunately we didn’t notice it until it was too late.  That would have been an opportunity to take up!  Before the dinner was over Jake had to leave to prepare for the parade.  I stayed behind with another marine’s girlfriend and chatted until we were called over to take our seats.  A group of marine’s stood by, arms ready to escort us to our seats on the bleachers which was special!  For the second time this summer I watched the marine parade and will be taking Tom there too!

Now… there’s some exciting news to announce - Tom is coming to visit me!  I can’t wait to see my big brother and show him around my current hometown.  I feel that his arrival tomorrow night will most likely be an emotional one since I haven’t seen any family for five months!  To some people five months probably doesn’t seem like a lot, but I guess the most I’ve gone without seeing family would be a month at most!  

We’re heading to New York City on Friday night and will be stopping in New Jersey and Philadelphia on our way back home, Sunday.  Next week on Thursday we leave for Austin, Texas!  More exciting travel times ahead!

I haven’t taken many photos lately… I promise to step up my game!

With love from DC xx

[wander-lustier]

14.07.2015

Our second family vacation for the year took place basically a week after arriving back from California!  We landed in Buffalo airport which is in western New York (the state, not the city - for those Kiwis who can’t keep up).  Alan, Ben’s father, and his lady Debi, live right on the lake at a little place called Olcott Beach in Burt.  Burt is close to Newfane which is also reasonably close to Niagara… so call it what you like.  When we first arrived Ben took me down to the water to show me the view and the awesome pier, the water was stunning!  Extremely flat and clear!  Not crystal clear, but still clear.  We were able to see a few massive carp going for an afternoon cruise in the shallows too.

Lake Ontario is one of the five great lakes of North America.  It is surrounded by Ontario (the province in Canada) and of course, the American state - New York. 

I wish I could say that was 100% my own knowledge, but I had to Wiki it.  Sssshhh…

It is huuuuuge, 19,000km squared and looks like an ocean.  I felt like I was back home at Otautu Bay, apart from the river stones.

During our drive back from the airport with Al, the girls fell asleep, so we pulled over at one of Ben’s favourite ice cream stores and had a sneaky black raspberry swirl soft serve!  It was the perfect welcome to NY treat.

Becca was being burned out at work and had to stay back a couple days to get things done.  Although all of her hard work did pay off, literally - she just recently scored a promotion!  She had very bad luck with flights that trip as her flight back to DC was cancelled because of a storm that had just begun… Our flight that was slightly earlier than hers still went through though, at least the storm didn’t speed up and catch us mid-flight.  That would have been an unfortunate disaster!  

Speaking of storms, we seem to have had a lot of them lately.  It’s seriously hot over here, but there’s been a lot of rain.  The humidity is high that’s for sure.  One of the recent storms we had gave me a huge fright and woke me in the middle of the night.  The attic was shaking and the thunder was LOUD!  

Anyway, back to the actual holiday…

I can’t remember when we actually did each thing, so just bare with me while I rattle off the events in no particular order.

Ben’s grandmother Marilyn kindly housed me for my stay.  I had a purple room which was funny because it made me feel like I was back home in my own room. Marilyn had made a YUMMY apple pie, she has a very high pie reputation in the family so I was looking forward to it!  With a side of ice cream it was very tasty and a great way to start my first evening at the other Weir residence.  

We visited a farm where Al had some horses.  Henry was a lovely horse and I fed him lots of carrots and grass - a first time experience for me, which was fun!  You probably saw Ben’s photo post on Facebook commenting on how it was his first time seeing a giraffe feeding a horse… HA. HA.

Ben’s brother Josh, his wife Andrea and their son Jeffrey came to stay for a few nights also.  Jeffrey was very funny and on the first evening whenever he looked at me he would give me this huge cheesy grin while he made eyes at me.  Super cute.  He sat on my knee to toast marshmallows on our second night.  Al has a gas fire pit on the deck out the back which is awesome!  The marshmallow goo was getting all over Jeffrey but he was loving them and ate plenty!  Of course, Juju also got into the marshmallow madness, and myself.  Not sure where Madison was??

There was a cute little carousel park at Olcott Beach that we went to visit.  It’s pretty much a vintage amusement park.  It had a 1928 style carousel and a band organ from 1931!  Tickets for the rides were only 25c!  They had a carousel, a car ride, rocket ride, airplane ride, boat ride and a tiny little ferris wheel.  Everything was miniature, I wish I’d been small enough to fit on them.  Julianne took the rides very seriously and we could hardly crack a smile out of her.  Once the rides came to an end and you went to help her out of the ride, her face would light up and she’d say how much fun she had!  I must say she did love the ferris wheel though and was giggling the whole way around after being on there at least 3 times!  Madison on the other hand was in fits of laughter and screwing up her face with pure joy on every ride EXCEPT for the ferris wheel, which she seemed to think was horrible and not fun at all.  She also refuses to sit on the horses on the carousel!

We sailed out of the Wilson Marina on Uncle Ernie’s yacht during one of our afternoons in Burt.  He was great fun and we all took turns steering the boat.  There wasn’t a lot of wind so we ended up using the motor for majority of the trip.  Madison absolutely despised her life jacket and everyone ended up having to take turns playing with her down in the cabin, since we eventually had to get rid of the jacket!  Juju was a little unsure to begin with… but by the end of the trip she was steering the boat towards a big container ship in the distance, yelling and pointing at it every 2 minutes.  It was all very exciting and so peaceful out on the water.  We had a discussion about what Americans call different types of boats compared to what us Kiwis call them.  They call a launch a yacht and a yacht a sailboat.  Silly Yankees.  

Another of Ben’s favourite ice cream stores had to be visited of course.  I got a Reese’s sundae which was amazing.  Duh.  Reese’s never lets me down.  But I couldn’t get through it all, even with a little help from ice cream monster Madison (who is now feeding herself with serious skill!).  Ben thought that was unbelievable after hearing about my 2 double cheeseburgers and 5 hot dogs competition winner.  It was fair to say I had already eaten 3 of Becca’s huge mouth watering tacos that night, so I was let off the hook.

On one of our final nights at Olcott Beach, Becca and I decided to head down to the pier with a bottle of wine and watch the sunset.  It was be-a-u-tiful, such a variety of pretty colours filled the sky and we could just make out the buildings in Toronto on the other side.  We talked and talked and talked and Becca even learned me up on some of the constellations once it got later (we were down there for a long while).  She also made a bet with herself about which stars were the planets - and which planets they were.  She won that bet.  Smarty pants.  It was loads of fun, not to mention the popcorn we snacked on before bed.  There’s a stall just up the road from Al’s place that does freshly popped popcorn and some of the others had gone up to get some while we were down on the pier.  The leftovers made a great midnight snack!

Niagara Falls was mind blowing.  Madison obviously thought differently though haha!  We all put on these big yellow rainproof ponchos that get provided and super sexy blue and green sandals… everyone at Niagara Falls is matching.  The views were incredible and I’d love to go back and see the falls from the boat trip out on the water.  We did ‘The Cave of Winds’ which involves many flights of stairs that are basically in the actual falls, so you have water splashing up over the side!  It gives you the opportunity to get absolutely saturated at the very top, which I’m guessing is where the name of the route came from.  I went for it alone at first and then Becca took up the opportunity and we even took a few selfies amongst the mayhem!  After lunch I went off on my own quickly to see the horseshoe falls.  I was most definitely impressed and very grateful to be taken there!  If you look at the last photo I’ve put up, on the other side of the water is Canada!

Oh and I nearly forgot to mention Debi’s gorgeous dog Gizzy!  Yes Aunty Cherry, same name as your Gizzy!  He reminded me so so soooo much of my baby Charlie.  There’s a photo above of him and I’ll put a video of him kicking around his favourite b-ball onto my facebook!

Stay on look out, it may take a little while but as soon as I find the motivation, I will write up another post about all the in between happenings.  Including my first roller coaster experience and new found root beer float addiction… Yum…

With love from DC xx

[wander-lustier]

06.07.2015

Sorry for my absence once again…  Here’s a gazillion words and photos to make up for it!

I’m in my own little bubble of Amuuurica and it keeps getting bigger and better!  I have two more posts coming up close behind this one as so much has been happening this month, I have a lot to tell over the next couple days!

I can’t believe the amount of places I’ve been in a matter of 4 months, who would have known that a young little Kiwi like me would have come this damn far!  DC, California, Virginia, Maryland and New York (different parts of NY, and more trips there coming up)… Woah!

Our family vacation to California began with me taking a mini vacation of my own.  I was picked up from the airport during our layover in Oakland and escaped for a weekend away with my old friend Dani!  A fellow Kiwi lass!  She has been working as an au pair for a family in Castro Valley, California for the past 15-16 months and is living it up!  She lives very close to San Francisco - so of course, that was our first destination.  We parked the car and went for a wander around Union Square.  I insisted that I shouldn’t be doing any shopping, but once we walked into H&M I ended up with at least 20 items of clothing to try out… Oops!   Next stop was the DELICIOUS Cheesecake Factory which is on the top floor of a large building.  This allowed us to have an awesome view of San Fran city.  My orange chicken meal was super yummy and I can’t even begin to tell you how the Reese’s peanut butter cup cheesecake tasted OMG!!!  Dani was spoiling me rotten and wouldn’t let me spend a single cent on food or drink - her explanation being that it’s not every day she gets to spend time with me anymore.  Very sweet of her!

After stuffing ourselves with rich sugar we made our way to the Golden Gate bridge.  I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned any details about the bucket list I compiled when I was 15 years old, but walking the Golden Gate bridge was one of my items on that list.  The list is made up of 120 different things and majority of those things involve some kind of travel.  Since being here in America I’ve definitely crossed off a decent amount of activities and can’t wait to see how many I can get through over the 2 years I’ll be here!  Anyway, the Golden Gate bridge was CRAZY!  We drove across it first a couple times with the sun roof open.  I held my phone out of the sun roof and recorded above us which turned out to be an epic video!  I had to hold onto to my phone for dear life though as it was extremely windy and it could easily have been swiped out of my grasp!  We eventually parked the car and jumped out for a windswept walk across.  It was already about 8:30pm and we had no clue that the bridge would be closing up at 9pm.  There was a guard whose job was to ride a bike back and forth across the bridge warning people about the closure, I felt kind of sorry for the poor guy, haha.  We managed to get halfway across and then had to turn around and head back for the car.  It was still an incredible experience though and I still can hardly believe I was actually there, it’s very surreal.

Before heading home, we popped in to Pier 39 which, I guess, is a little harbour/pier where there is a miniature carnival atmosphere.  There were plenty of souvenir stores lining the walkway and Dani insisted on buying me something, I ended up deciding on the classic choice of a San Francisco sweater.  On the actual pier there was a huge group of seals!  It was the most random thing to see!  They are just wild seals all lying on top of each other on this pier getting annoyed at one another and having little scraps.  It was hilarious!  They made a very loud racket!

Yosemite national park was even more surreal than Golden Gate - if that’s even possible.  It was beautifully picturesque, like those desktop screen savers that are automatically installed on your computer.  A complete perfection of pure beauty. It took Dani and I over 3 hours, from what I can remember, to drive out to Yosemite valley.  We left at 7am on Sunday morning and didn’t get home until around 7pm.  It was a long day, but an eventful one, with a lot of walking involved!  We saw huge cliffs that just went up and up and up, gorgeous waterfalls which we even got very close to, and plenty of greenery stretching out forever.  Yosemite was packed with people, even though it’s such a huge area of land and it was a scorching hot day, so yes - I got burnt.  Unfortunately the creek that ran alongside the mountains was freezing cold, I swear it must have been at least 0 degrees celsius, there was no way we were getting in there to cool off.

Castro Valley is a very cute little town in California.  I didn’t really get to see much of it other than the school that Dani’s care kids go to, Starbucks, a bagel store and In-N-Out Burger - highly recommended!  The first In-N-Out Burger opened in 1948 and to have a drive-thru burger joint where you could order through a speaker box was pretty rad back then.  Their philosophy has always been to “Give customers the freshest, highest quality foods you can buy and provide them with friendly service in a sparkling clean environment”.  Their menu takes simple to a whole new level having only the options of: double-double burger (which is what I ordered), hamburger, cheeseburger, french fries, shakes and soda.  They then have a few items on their ‘not-so-secret’ menu that you can add to your burger or fries.  It is such a unique place and I loved it!  The quality and freshness of the food was better than any other fast food joint I’ve eaten at.  By far.  Ben begs to differ though.

Speaking of a drive-thru, I can’t believe how many things are drive-thru in America.  Why!?  They have a drive-thru at some of the banks!  They had a drive-thru pharmacy in Castro and then when Ben picked me up from Ontario airport to take me to Redlands, we went through a drive-thru at Starbucks!!  I don’t understand what’s so hard about parking your car and going inside…  Ben and I were sure it took a lot longer to get our drinks sitting in the drive-thru than it would if we’d just walked on in.  Ridiculousness.

Although Redlands was brown, dry and desertlike, it was very pretty and quaint.  I could easily imagine Becca growing up there.  

The reason for our vacation in California was to see Becca’s younger brother Chris’ wedding.  Their wedding was at a beautiful winery in Temecula and the scenery was beautiful - I feel like I’ve said that word a lot throughout this Cali post!  Chris’ wife Michelle looked stunning in her wedding dress and of course being such a softie, I teared up a little whenever someone in the wedding party cried!  I was wearing sunglasses though so I’m sure nobody noticed, HA!  Julianne was their flower girl and she did superb!  I was very proud and I’m sure Ben and Becca were too!  She threw out her petals perfectly and was the cutest flower girl I’ve ever seen!

Unfortunately on one of the days within our California trip I was feeling like shit.  I could hardly talk and my sinuses were so blocked up I could hardly think.  I slept the entire night, the entire day and the following entire night… only waking up to drink some OJ and snack on things here and there.  Luckily all the sleep paid off and I was feeling 10x better the next day.

Madison’s birthday was FUN!  I was so excited to be able to witness her 1st birthday and got to be the audience of a smash cake for the first time!  It is totally a tradition I will be bringing home with me, every kid deserves a mini cake to smash!  We had family and some of Becca’s friends over for a little celebration at Dawn’s house (Becca’s mom).  Madison was hesitant for the first thirty seconds, probably wondering why we had a put a whole cake in front of her and sat back to watch.  She poked and prodded it for a while and then her whole hand went in and she began stuffing her face with cake.  It went everywhere but I swear she must have eaten at LEAST half the cake.  Solid effort!  Two of Becca’s good friends Jeni and Travis were there, they have 3 children - 2 boys and a girl.  Julianne and their daughter Hailey got along VERY well and at the end of the night Hailey asked if Juju could come back to her house and sleepover.  Juju is a very timid young lady and I don’t think she had even had a playdate at a friend’s house by herself, let alone slept over for a whole night - so when Juju said she’d like to we were all surprised!  Turned out she stayed the whole night without complaint and didn’t ask for mom until 2pm the following day!

Three other things I can think of that we did were swimming in Becca’s friend’s gorgeous pool, with a fantastic view… and eating at a country club (my first time)!  Plus Juju’s new found love of climbing trees - with assistance.

I’ve probably missed a few things from the trip, it’s been a while since we were there now!  All in all, I had an amazing time and will never forget my first Californian experience!

Keep your eyes peeled over the next couple of days - there’s more to come.

With love from DC xx

P.S. Take a look at the rudy pants dancing at the wedding reception!  What a hoot!  She was damn good entertainment once she got rid of the frills!

[wander-lustier]

05.06.2015

From the DC National Harbour, to California… it has been a busy month!  Hence my absence from Geronimo-ing, I apologise profusely.

A few weeks ago now I went to the National Harbour in DC which is very beautiful at sunset!  Jacob, Kyle, Sarah and I grabbed dinner at the harbour and got tickets for the ferris wheel which was huge!  I was most definitely scared about going on it (major fear of heights!) but once we were up there the view was amazing and I NEARLY forgot about how high off the ground I was.

The following Friday night Jake and I went out to play mini golf.  The place we went to seemed like a really cool hang out spot.  There was a bar and DJ booth, and people were ordering food and drinks while hitting balls in the driving range.  The vibe was awesome.  It was a very competitive game of mini golf which I was so close to winning, but I let myself down during the last couple of holes!  

A large group of us went to play laser tag the following evening which was a laugh.  After waiting for over an hour, we ended up playing against a huge group of kids who whooped majority of our asses for sure!   We were celebrating Devi’s birthday so we all headed to Chilli’s afterwards - a Mexican bar & grill, for dinner and then to a club called Eden for a night full of rooftop dancing!  We would have been celebrating Chelsea’s 21st also, but she was partying in Vegas!   A group of us were meant to head out to Great Falls for a hike the following day but I guess everyone was too tired after the late night/early morning!  Jake and I still went along anyway and I’m so glad that we did.  It was beautiful!  We were able to watch a couple of crazy guys in kayaks speeding down the falls too.  I was freaked out the whole time that someone was going to fall out and crack their head open on a rock… but thankfully that didn’t happen.

Something I’ve noticed is that Americans love milkshakes.  I’ve had my fair share of them since being here.  They have a crazy amount of flavours, much more creative than the classic chocolate, lime, vanilla or strawberry from back home… no wonder I was never a fan before.  Also, their ice cream is 10x better than NZ ice cream.  My favourite so far is anything Reese’s - I’ve tried Reese’s milkshake, ice cream AND cheesecake.

Sarah and I have started a gradual trend at the marine barracks by dragging Kyle and Jacob along for a pedicure!  It was hilarious, Sarah and I could not stop laughing.  They even picked out colours for their nails, which definitely made the beauticians’ days!  One of them said to the boys “if you ever need another, come back here anytime” followed by a little too many pats on the back.

Memorial weekend has just been and gone.  Memorial day is a day on which those who died in active military service are remembered.  It’s also the weekend when everyone hosts big BBQ get-togethers to kick off summer. We had a BBQ at home with a large group of Ben and Becca’s friends and I also invited some of mine.  We had hot dogs, grilled chicken and plenty of AMAZING ribs that Ben made.  I ate more than enough and naturally got sauce everywhere.  Anyone who knows me, knows my love for ribs in NZ at Lonestar.   After the BBQ I got dragged out to a live concert where the opening act was just noise.  I couldn’t understand a word they said and my brain was being blown to smithereens by the ruckus.  I ended up leaving after a couple of songs and missed out on the real stars of the show.  I decided I wanted to keep my ear drums in one piece.  Ben later informed me that I could have gone to the bar and asked for earplugs, which would have been very helpful! We also went along to Josh and Annie’s place (one of the marines and his wife) for a BBQ the same weekend.  They live in a block of apartments where they have a shared BBQ and pool area.  Jacob challenged me to an eating contest, which is never a good idea.  I ate 5 hot dogs and 2 juicy Lucy’s - which is a burger with a paddy that is made up of two, and has a slice of cheese in the middle.  It’s safe to say I felt disgusting after that.  But of course, I had to prove my love for food and win the challenge.

The Weir girls have been a box of giggles as always this past month.  We’ve had lots of fun!   I can’t believe how opposite Juju and Madison are.  Juju is very timid and Madison is fearless!  Juju eats very little and Madison eats a lot!  Juju is very gentle when she plays, but Madison’s nickname is bam bam because if there’s something she can knock over or swipe off the table, she will!   Madison is also going to be the class clown.  She has just learnt how to clap and when Becca arrives home at the end of the day she will sit there clapping with excitement.  It’s very cute.  She also loves throwing her head back when she’s being silly and if you’re sitting on a bed or couch, she’ll throw her whole body back and crack up laughing.  When I’m folding the washing she does the same in the big pile of clothes - it’s the greatest game! Juju and I made a construction site the other week out of miniature rocks and trucks.  I bought two dress-up construction hats with the intention of sticking them together as they were made out of flimsy plastic.  When Juju went to put it on she noticed straight away that there were two… so, of course, she took them apart and handed one to me saying “You need to wear one too if you want to be on the construction site, Kelly”.   All three of us have been to the playseum and the zoo this month.  The playseum is sort of like a museum for children where they can play in all types of different themed rooms.  There’s a supermarket, a pet store, a fire station, a theatre, a pizza shop, and much more!  You can also buy ‘bucks’ which you can use to get your nails painted, decorate a cupcake, do a craft, and other extra activities like that.  Now that Madison has started to learn how to walk, the play supermarket is super fun!  Juju and Madison both push around the trolleys together choosing items from the shelf. When we went to the zoo it was a VERY hot day!  Especially to push around a stroller with two girls inside!  We looked at many different animals and it was awesome to see Madison interacting with them, now that she’s getting older she’s developing a very funny personality.  There was a mini splash park at the zoo which we played in together.  Every few minutes a big wave whooshed out of a grate in the rocks and got us soaked!  The only bad part about the zoo is that when you decide to go home you have to walk all the way up the big hill.  When it’s hot outside you end the trip dripping in sweat!  We decided to stop off at an ice-cream stall that sold a mini tub of ice-cream in the shape of little dots, they were very fun to eat and looked a bit like hundreds & thousands sprinkles which Juju thought was great!   When we were eating lunch at the zoo I could hear a group of ladies chatting behind me.  One of them had a kiwi accent and I could tell straight away!  When they got up to leave I said “Excuse me, are you from New Zealand?” and she said yes!  We chatted for a while and she told me that her husband works for a bank here in DC and that they’ve been living here for nearly two years!  She gave me her number and said if I ever felt like some kiwi company to get in touch.  It was nice to hear an accent as awesome as mine.

All in all it looks like the USA has swallowed me up and I’d very much like to stay for a loooooong time.  There’s loads more exploring to do!

I’m currently in California which has been a blast!  When I get back home I’ll be sure to write up another post all about the trip!

With love from CA xx